1 Million Websites Affected After WordPress Suspends Astra Theme

Morning Dough

💰 1 Million websites affected

To: Dough Readers

August 10, 2020

Happy Monday and Happy National Lazy Day. We couldn’t think on any better lazy person than George Costanza, that for 9 years of the successful TV show Seinfeld, was focused on being lazy in any job he had. This did not prevent from Costanza’s actor Jason Alexander to create a net worth of $50 million (His co-stars on the show Jerry Seinfeld, generated a net worth of $950 millions, Michael Richards (Cosmo Kramer) $30 million dollars and Julia Louis-Dreyfus $200 million).

The show Seinfeld generated over $4 billion in the past 30 years, I guess you can make money from a “show about nothing”.

via GIPHY

In today’s edition:

1 Million Websites Affected After WordPress Suspends Astra Theme
Google Extends Lead Forms to YouTube, Discovery Campaigns
Facebook Adds New Sponsored Post Options for Groups
7 Ideas for a More Effective Cold Email Campaign
How to Boost Email Open Rates by 32%

and more…

Wishing you a wonderful week!
— Itay Paz

QUICK FROM THE NEWS

1 Million Websites Affected After WordPress Suspends Astra Theme For Violating Prohibitions On Affiliate Links

Source: SEJ

WordPress suspended the Astra theme for five weeks for violating prohibitions on affiliate links. Theme publishers denied that the theme added affiliate links. The punishment is in response to alleged violations of WordPress prohibitions against adding affiliate links into themes.

WordPress has officially suspended the popular Astra theme. Brainstorm Force has requested to have the suspension lifted. Given how WordPress already tried to resolve the issue prior to the suspension, it doesn’t appear likely that Astra will be restored until the five week suspension is over.

Read more here.

QUICK FROM THE NEWS

Google Extends Lead Forms to YouTube, Discovery Campaigns

Source: Google

Google announced it has been testing lead form ad extensions in Search campaigns since last fall. Now, advertisers can use the lead form extensions in YouTube and Discovery campaign ads as well. The company also announced new initiatives to automate data imports into Google Ads.

Quora recently rolled out its Lead Gen Forms product as well, which also have a Zapier integration that allows you to send leads to Salesforce, Gmail, Marketo or other system.

Read more here.

TOOL/RESOURCE OF THE DAY

Google Fonts

Source: Google

Another great Google resource, the Google Fonts: a library of 999 free licensed font families for you to use in your websites and documents.

Get Google Fonts here.

GET SMARTER IN BUSINESS MARKETING

67% of Online Marketers Work on Weekends

In a quick poll we’ve ran on Linkedin with over 300 online marketers, 67% have said that they either work full or partly over the weekend and only 33% said they are not working at all.

Out of the online marketers who work on weekends, 63% said they are working partly and 37% are working throughout the weekend.

One of the industry experts had said that he believes the real number for people who work over the weekend is around 90% but as the votes & voters were visible some people preferred not to disclose they are working on weekends.

Read more here.

GET SMARTER IN EMAIL MARKETING

7 Ideas for a More Effective Cold Email Campaign

Source: Digital Marketer

According to a study done by CDN, email marketing is still generating as much as $38 per every dollar invested in the strategy. The sheer power versus budget is insane and shows that email is just as viable today as it was before, perhaps even more so.

The question is how can you make email marketing effective, even when you are creating cold email campaigns.

Read more here.

WHAT ELSE IN THE OVEN

Google Is Shutting Down Its Website Builder (techradar)

Facebook Adds New Sponsored Post Options for Groups (Social Media Today)

How to Use Instagram Reels in Your Marketing Strategy (Digital Marketer)

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG): The Digital Effect of Covid-19 Is Here to Stay (Outbrain)

Top 5 Wistia Alternatives For Businesses That Need Video Hosting (IMPACT)

Maintaining Your Mindset as a Business Owner During a Recession (Oberlo)

GET SMARTER IN ECOMMERCE

Why You Should Still Be An Amazon Affiliate Even Though They Cut Commissions

Source: One More Cup of Coffee

Amazon associate program, one of the most popular and accessible affiliate programs, announced in April, a cut of the referral commissions for a number of categories, resulting in a drastic cut in revenue for a huge number of sites.

While many where looking for alternatives or even stop working with the Amazon associate program, some still find it as a great and profitable affiliate program and were able to grow their revenues even after the famous cut.

Read more here.

CASE STUDY OF THE DAY

How to Boost Email Open Rates by 32%

Source: Jeff Bullas

This case study shows an Etsy seller who produces cute, handmade stickers that every month, sends a newsletter with her stickers catalog, discounts, and journaling ideas/tips. This Etsy seller improved her email open rate by 32% and sales when she tried these 6 strategies.

Read more here.

Itay Paz
Founder & CEO
Morning Dough
Follow Itay: Twitter / Facebook

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