To be fair there have been some rollbacks on the Gutenberg release date.  At first August was the date for it’s inclusion into the “Core” of WordPress, now it’s release is set for October.  However pre-release Beta has already appeared and from user’s reports it’s got more bugs than a trailer park.

In case you don’t know, the WordPress platform is the creation of Matt Mullenweg who also heads Automattic Company.  To his credit, he did make WordPress open source but if you think about it, it becomes easy to see that it could not have possibly enjoyed the huge growth it did in such a short time if he had not done so.

However, since that time Matt has used his unique position as the code’s originator to leverage into place such jewels as Hello Dolly and Akismet anti-spam plugins.  You know, those two plugins that everyone immediately uninstalls on each new install of WordPress?  Well, to be fair, not everyone uninstalls them immediately.  I mean there are new people coming to WordPress each day and it takes a little time to figure out you don’t need quotes from Louis Armstrong’s signature song to appear on your website each and every day, nor do you need to duplicate the efforts of their selected Security Plugin with a second anti-spam layer.  Forcing these to install on each and every WordPress installation has garnered both of these plugins a recommendation on the WordPress.org repository of over 1 million installs.  Don’t we call that spin these days?

Matt and his merry band of coders have also given us such gems as Gravatar, Jetpack and WooCommerce.  Now some folks like Jetpack, but it gives you so many different types of features it reminded me of one of those guys spinning plates on-stage.  You know, the more plates he adds the more impressed the audience becomes?  Well that’s entertainment not people’s livelihoods.  Nor are whole businesses based off this guy with his shirt open too far running frantically from plate to plate.  Then there is Gravatar; if you wish your logo to show up automagically on your WordPress site you need to upload and/or change your avatar selection there.  WooCommerce on the other hand is the biggest eCommerce solution, in no small part to the fact that it was the first one, although being very familiar with the code it was targeting was quite a leg up as well.  Starting to see the leveraging pattern here?

We cannot forget about WordPress.com either.  This is the version of WordPress that offers free hosting for WordPress users while it also gives Automattic free advertising.  Nothing wrong with that, free hosting, but you pay for it with their advertising…  on your site.   If you are a designer I don’t have to tell you about what is hidden in some ads, and if you are not we will save it for a post about Firefox and the NoScript addon (large HINT just dropped for you).  As if that weren’t enough, you are provided with a quite clumsy URL that includes the WordPress.com attribution.  Doesn’t matter how clever the user is on his domain name selection, their WordPress.com URL now defies easy memorization by prospective users or clients.   Of course, you are always free to “pay” a fee to have these features removed from you “free” hosting account, and there’s the hook.

With WordPress.com the target market does indeed seem to be the low hanging fruit of the newcomer to WordPress.  The new arrivals eyes are overwhelmed and blinking in new territory as if they just came out of a dark cave at high-noon.  They’re trying to save money because they don’t know exactly what’s ahead for their wallet or it’s contents.  Countless times I have seen WordPress.com users lamenting over how to move their site to a “real” hosting company, their words not mine.  Basically it’s a trap for newbies to stumble into.

This brings us up to the star of our show today, Gutenberg Editor.  At first it was billed as a page builder, but through some verbal legerdemain it is now being referred to as an editor.  And to be fair, this is not by Automattic, the author is listed as Gutenberg Team.  Cute!  Now we do not care a bit if there were divisions set up in the company,  or a new DBA registered to make this a legal company name.  What we care about is why.  Was it done to distance Gutenberg from Automattic and it’s less than stellar reputation?  Is it the dodge which it seems so clearly to be?  We would have to ask Matt, but good luck with that because Mr. Mullenweg has leveraged himself into a net worth of 40 million dollars, according to a recent Google search.

Gutenberg is indeed being praised, but primarily by it’s apologists, and of course the newcomers upon whose back Automattic has based it’s fortune and claim to fame.  Facebook groups have been launched and a website with a suspiciously devoted flavor –  https://gutenbergtimes.com – in it’s very name.  I would link it but I don’t want to mess with a no follow attribution or help the employee who appears to run it and promote it.  the website owner is hard to flap too.  She frequents the Facebook group – or started it as well – and has her customer service tone firmly in grasp.  This tells me that she is indeed an employee, but I won’t mention that here.

The employees have been pro-active as well.  Here is a screenshot of the ratings page on WordPress.org (the benign WordPress site);

You don’t usually see such a wide spread of ratings such as these.  See all the 1 star ratings?  (I always wondered why there were no 0 star ratings.)  Now look at how relatively few 2, 3 and 4 star ratings there are.  Also notice how the 5 star ratings jump back up quite a bit.  I read these sort of ratings every time I select a new plugin for a new purpose.  This type of spread is not natural, and not something you would normally see.  How to account for it?  Employees and newbies with little experience are most likely populating the 5 star slot.  Apologists on the Facebook group say the 1 star reviews are from haters, but this seems to be an odd place to find trolls.  I mean this is the WordPress repository, not Redd-it after all.

But Never Fear, There Is A Way Out

A gentleman by the name of Jeff Starr – pretty sure no relation to Ringo – has produced a plugin named Disable Gutenberg.  I have spoken to Mr. Starr and he says that this will work for the full-magilla WordPress Core addition in the WordPress 5.o update.  There are some other solutions like Classic Editor (which threatens to fall away with the WP v. 5.0 rollout) and one or two others. but Jeff Starr assures me that he is up to the task of keeping Gutenberg off our backs and enabling those of us who wish, to remain Guten Free.

Have I tried Gutenberg Editor?  No, and I will not.  I presently use Elementor Page Builder but only after doing my own research and choosing it for myself.  Somehow, being told what I must use just doesn’t sit well with me.  It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, especially when it’s just not needed.

Go into the cPanel for your site’s server, then open up the File Manager.  Double click on Public HTML, then look for a .php file called wp_config.

Normally, I would caution you to make and save a copy of the whole unedited file to your desktop before-hand and this is a good habit and practice to follow. However for something this simple I no longer do this myself. Yes I probably should.

Right click on wp_config and open it for editing.

Now scroll down in the file until you find this line;

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);

Directly under this line place the following line of code;

define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘768M’);

If you are using Elementor and unduly worried about setting this too high, don’t. This is an unnecessary concern. I always use 768M, it will probably go to 1024 pretty soon.

Final most important step

Save the file.

That’s it. You have just successfully increased your wp_memory_limit.

Forget about all the sales hype

When starting a website your absolute first action should be to forget about every advertisement you have ever seen related to this subject. Most advertisers just want your money and your satisfaction with the product they are “hawking” is merely incidental.  Indeed, advertisers today study you and apply a high degree of psychology to bend you to their will.  To truly know which ones are trustworthy and which ones are not is virtually impossible for a newcomer.

The second thing you should do is to dissuade yourself of the delusion that you can design your own website.

I know, you’ve got ad after ad assailing you, all screaming that you can do this. And of course you can do this, no one will stop you, but the results will look like…

well…

it will look like your very first website.

In a way I wish that I could show you my very first website from 9 years ago, but at the same time I am very glad I cannot. It wasn’t good at all, but I was proud nonetheless.

Everything today has a learning curve, web design, and it’s requirements are no exception. Each and every year this learning curve gets a little steeper as well.  Last year the European Union made a regulation that everyone is subject to worldwide. Ignoring this regulation runs you the risk of being fined as a result, whether you have any dealings with Europe or not. Unclear of the legality of all this but pending unlikely litigation on this, it’s something we all must deal with today.

Wow, Free Hosting!!!

There are several less than exemplary companies out there with goals of ensnaring newcomers to this field.  Wix and WordPress.com come to mind but there are more.  Free Hosting means the hosting company is going to be engaged in self promotion on your URL, and likely your site as well.  When picking a domain name you search for something catchy and memorable and not too long.

Yes, my domain name is a perfect example of what not to do.  It was really late one night…

However, when the Free Hosting company drops it’s corporate name into the mix, all the planning was really for nothing.  You can pay to have this removed, but really, why not just buy some real hosting with all the extra features?  We at Raging River use MightWeb.net extensively.  We love all it’s features, it’s low price and most of all it’s reliability.

Get some help first!

At this stage of setting up your new website you are in a unique position, and are about to make decisions which you will be living with for some time. Right now your main job should be to make good decisions, rather than quick decisions you will soon regret. After all, you need to choose;

• A domain name registrar
• A hosting company
• Security measures
• An SSL certificate provider
• A CMS
• A CDN
• A GDPR compliance method

If you didn’t know what all these terms meant – before Googling them – you are going to need some help.

The voice of experience

Without some experience you won’t know which hosting provider will double your bill the second year, or which will save you money but at the expense of loading time, or which provider is run by lawyers who ultimately own everything you put on their server. Yes it’s true. A little voice inside you tells you that free hosting sounds too good to be true. It actually is true, but your site will carry company generated ads which you must pay to have removed, or a difficult to remember URL which includes the hosting companie’s name. Nice racket, huh? To be completely fair, these Free Hosting companies’ target audience is indeed the newcomer who is inexperienced and excited about getting their new venture rolling.

Domain names, on the other hand, are relatively simple things but the cost can vary wildly. And after all, it’s just a domain name but the few dollars you save each year can easily go towards other necessary software expenses.

SSL certificates are a very good example of experience saving you money. Simple SSL certificates can be had for free from Let’s Encrypt. Yes, there are limitations on these certificates but if that’s all you need it makes no sense to shell out $79 or $49 per year to Network Solutions or GoDaddy for the same exact thing. More elaborate SSL certificates can be had for very cheap as well so avoid the “scalpers”.

Here’s a fun fact that most people do not know. The level and layering of encryption on a cheap SSL certificate and an expensive high security version is exactly the same. If you read differently somewhere you will know that they are either lying to you, or they are uneducated in the matter. The difference between the two different levels of SSL certificates is the amount of verification of your personal data when you sign up, and the amount of “green real estate” in the address bar when people visit your site. That’s it.

These things and so very much more can only be learned through time and experience. But what if you had a friend who could steer you in the right direction? Think of the money you could save each and every year. Think of the pitfalls you could avoid.

Talk to a designer, in fact talk to a couple

Most designers are happy to talk to you about your needs. If they pull the cash register out a bit too quickly, simply move on. I mean we’re trying to start a viable and affordable website here, not empty the National Treasury. If possible talk to them on the phone. I believe most would be happy to have a phone conversation with you. I know I would be glad to talk to you; (662) 671-1041 When you get the designers on the phone listen to their voice, listen to the speed at which they rattle off answers to your questions. Do you hear a genuine level of excitement? Or does it sound like they are multi-tasking and fitting you in? Common sense dictates which one will do a better job for you.

Whatever you do, be sure to deal with the designer directly. If the person you are going to deal with is about to farm this out (Oh sorry, outsource it.) move on! Having a go-between means adding an unnecessary and undesirable complication to the communication processes and puts a great deal of faith in the middle-man’s ability to prioritize something he obviously knows little about, communicate and find solutions for both sides, and usually causes frustration for you and the designer both. I recently dealt with this sort of thing for the first time. I’ll never do it again. In fact the result was so disappointing that I will not be featuring the site on my portfolio. my hands were tied by abysmal communication skills of the mediator.

Some brands to avoid

Here are some brands that in my opinion you would do well to avoid. This is not a grudge list, think of it more as an experience list. However, do notice that we provide links to the good guys, but not the bad guys.

• Hostgator hosting
• Bluehost hosting
• GoDaddy hosting
• Network Solutions hosting (Very expensive, restrictive, and, I am told, owned by attorneys)
• ipage hosting
• WIX hosting and page builder
• WordPress.com (WordPress.org is the one you’re looking for.)
• WP Bakery page builder (formerly Visual Composer page builder)
• Slider Revolution
• Sucuri Security plugin (from GoDaddy)

Some brands we like

• WordPress.org (Not WordPress.com)
• Wordfence Security (This plugin has never let us down, and that includes all clients’ sites)
• Might Web hosting (Quite reasonable pricing, lots and lots of great features)
• Elementor page builder
• OceanWP Theme

Sources for free to use images are all important to website designers and below you will find 59 free to use image sites.  The order is merely a matter of my opinion alone.  Since we are dealing with photos, and we all know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I encourage you to browse through these and find the sites that you like the most.  Ordering them to my preference is merely a matter of my own personal convenience.

I maintain some very large HDDs on two PCs and have many of my favorite images downloaded because it is simpler than trying to remember what I saw where, and finding them again.  I would encourage you to do the same if you have the resources.  This will cut back on frustration and perhaps even small degrees of insanity.

Having said all this I must caution you that not all images on all these sites are “free to use”, or they may be “free use” but require some sort of attribution.  Be sure to check to see what the requirements are for the photos and sites that you wish to use before you use them!  Reverse searches of photos is very simple these days and none of us wants that “cease and desist” email, or worse.

Were I not presently redesigning my site, with customers and life keeping me too busy to finish it off, I would comment on each site and tell you a little bit about each one. I will do this where it is easy for me.   Clicking on either the title or the image will take you to that site.

So 59 free to use image sties for you.  Enjoy and stay legal, and don’t forget to size and optimize your images.  Some of these images are almost big enough to paste onto a billboard and slowing your site down to a crawl where loading is concerned is one major taboo.  If you need a site to trim and shrink photos online I highly recommend befunky.com  It has a nice comfortable interface and some very good options to choose from.

Pexels

Pixabay

PIKWIZARD

Life of Pix

This one of my favorites, as you can tell by it’s placement at the top of this list.  I have built whole projects from this site.

Skitterphoto

Stock Snap

Wunderstock.com

Wunderstock is rather new. New to me at least. They offer the ability to extend any search to Flickr (very useful for academic and niche topics) and even offer the option to edit images in-browser before downloading (no extra software needed).

Split Shire

Be warned, if you use one of the AdBlockers it will make you whitelist the site to view the images.  Having already released it from the NoScript addon this leaves one open to scripts that run from ads.  This is one of the primary causes of the junk we end up with on our PCs.  Use at your own risk

We do not blame the website owners for this sort of thing.  It usually comes from the advertising companies they hire who are themselves not careful enough about what they let into their systems.

Travel Coffee Book

At this point ordering is becoming irrelevant to my tastes.  I will just be listing them in the order I come to them.

Picography

Free Digital Photos

Unrestricted Stock

Jay Mantri

Libre Shot

Pickup Image

Photo Pin

Superfamous Studios

PD Pics

Negative Space

Moveast

MMT

Chamber Of Commerce

Snapwire Snaps

Startup Stock Photos

Jeshoots

ISO Republic

Free Stock Photos

New York Public Library

Public Domain Archive

Picjumbo

IM Free

Death To Stock Photos

Stockio

Refe

Large Photos

Good Free Photos

PD Pics

New Old Stock

Public Domain Pictures

Free Images

Free Stocks

Big Foto

No, I didn’t mess up the screenshot, that’s really how the site looks.  But they have free photos.

Magdeleine

Free Nature Stock

Free Range Stock

Stokpic

Stock Vault

Viintage

Designers Pics

Fancy Crave

Kaboom Pics

Burst.Shopify

Morgue File

Gratisography

1 Million Free Pictures

This one is a newcomer to the list.  At first glance it looks as though it leans heavily of photos that have had effects added through Photoshop or something like it.

Barn Images

Despite the name, this site offers a lot more than just images of barns.

Free For Commercial Use

pluspng

Just bumped into this one.  Only PNGs.

Coverr

This resource/site is for videos.  Some of the others have videos as well but this one seems to be solely videos.

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