Breakdown - A Gravity Forms Podcast

[00:00:00]

[00:00:00] Matt: Hello, not Dustin.

[00:00:01] Megan: Hello, not Dustin. Indeed.

[00:00:04] Matt: Megan Jones joins us today on the second episode ever of the Breakdown podcast at Gravity Forms Podcast. Megan, welcome.

[00:00:12] Megan: Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:16] Matt: So what do you do here at Gravity Forms?

[00:00:18] Megan: Uh, so I'm the marketing lead. Um, I look after all the content, uh, some of the co-marketing, blog newsletters, emails, and, help out, with the event stuff and everything, uh, marketing related really.

[00:00:32] Matt: Including this very podcast, uh, it's uh, it's a great pleasure to have you here.

[00:00:36] Before we jump into the notable topic sections, um, just a quick mention that gravity forms 2.7 0.5 and also probably by the time this episode airs, 2.7 0.6. Was released. You can follow the links in the show notes so that you can see what's going on with that. Not a whole heck of a lot going on, like we're not gonna razzle dazzle you with these, with these updates.

[00:01:00] There's nothing major here. But definitely check out those posts, uh, to see the change logs and some of the more immediate updates, unless there was like a standout feature for you, Megan, anything that you saw in the change logs that you're like, wow, okay. This was, this was really cool.

[00:01:15] Megan: The, the last couple of, um, releases have been sort of updates to 2.7, which was a major release for us, and it came out a couple of months ago now. Uh, it has some really great features in, and we've actually had a really good response to it from, , our customers, , which I'm not surprised about.

[00:01:32] , from new users to our developer community, and then everyone in between. We've got a new form template library that's built into the product now.

[00:01:39] New form settings. Enhancements to our Honey pot, functionality. Um, we've got a new setup wizard and. New developer features,

[00:01:47] so, , if you, are still yet to update and you're a customer, please do so because you're missing out on some, great features.

[00:01:54] Matt: A B u A B U as in, uh, a b ABC in the sales world. Always be closing in, uh, the WordPress world. Always be updating.

[00:02:04] Megan: updating. Yes, I like

[00:02:05] Matt: I just made it on the fly. I just made it on the fly. Megan, this is, listen, this is, this is a

[00:02:09] Megan: I'm taking it, I'm running with it.

[00:02:12] Matt: Let's jump in to those notable topics this week.

[00:02:16] Nonprofit license has officially launched when Dustin and I chatted, um, uh, a little about a week and a half ago when we recorded the first episode. nonprofit license was just on the horizon. We now have it officially. You can find it at gravity forms.com/nonprofit license. There's a hyphen in there.

[00:02:33] but check the link in the show notes. Gravity Forms. Look, it's the most trusted contact form. Plug in for WordPress. it's a fantastic form tool for collecting donations. We have Stripe integrations, square integrations, PayPal integrations

[00:02:48] you can now get it for $129 annual subscription. Uh, doesn't cover multi-site, but it is three sites, standard support. And we can talk about some of the other features here in a moment, but, congratulations.

[00:02:59] I know that was an effort. You [00:03:00] were working on really hard with the team to get out the door.

[00:03:02] Megan: Yeah, we're delighted actually to, um, to launch with it. we've offered a discount for, uh, nonprofits for a long time, but this is the first time we've, put a official, , nonprofit license out there for our customers.

[00:03:14] It is an application process. You do have to, uh, meet some of the criteria to, uh, get the license, but, um, you can apply,

[00:03:22] gravity forms.com/nonprofit python license

[00:03:26] It includes obviously all the built-in features, so all our licenses, have with them. and additionally, all of the current add-ons are also included. So that's all of our marketing add-ons, all of our importantly payment add-ons, so you can accept donations, and then anti-spam.

[00:03:42] Automations. also all of our feature enhancement add-ons, which are so important to so many of our customers. So that's surveys, quizzes, polls, user registration, signature, web hooks,

[00:03:54] Matt: Having all of these other add-ons really just completes the probably workflow or life cycle, right, of somebody who's donating to a site, uh, or purchasing a product, right? It's not just about that one transaction, but you quickly realize that, oh, gravity forms almost acts as like a safety net to say like, I can, I can solve that for you, Mrs.

[00:04:11] Customer, , oh, yes. , don't worry. I have that, that in my arsenal, uh, of gravity forms and, the nonprofit license will help you do it.

[00:04:19] Megan: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:04:20] Matt: All right, let's move on from non-profit licenses.

[00:04:21] , here's something that's interesting. We are launching, uh, into beta. We're gonna talk about our beta group in a little bit, but hold that thought.

[00:04:28] CloudFlare turnstile beta is out. We'll link that up in the show notes. Listen, if you're sick of capture or if you don't want to use a Google, another, Google service. I mean, out of the laundry list of Google Services, I highly doubt Cap would ever be sunset. But Google has done some crazy things before, that's, that's not to say they wouldn't, um, turnstile from a CloudFlare is a fantastic, uh, spam, combating alternative.

[00:04:58] And, uh, a lot of us in the agency world have used CloudFlare. To manage their d n s records for that layer of protection. and now, we can deliver that spam protection right into your gravity forms, uh, coming soon.

[00:05:11] It's in beta.

[00:05:12] Megan: it's gonna be available on all our licenses. So yeah, if you are basic pro or elite or a nonprofit now a nonprofit, um, license holder, you'll, you'll get access to, CloudFlare Turnstile. it's a great, addition to many of our anti-spam, tools.

[00:05:29] Matt: The, um, the developers are going nuts about it, as, as a marketer, as somebody who's just like an end user of WordPress. I'm just like, yeah, I'm sick and tired of trying to pick like the fire hydrant. In the Google capture and it it constantly telling me that I haven't picked enough fire hydrants or, there's just, uh, the pictures are the bicycles, right?

[00:05:49] Is another one crosswalk. My God, traffic lights. How many times can I do that? Uh, the CloudFlare turnstile, which sort of just happens. I don't know how it does the technical side of it. [00:06:00] I'm gonna have to dig into how it, uh, measures what might be a human and not a spammer. But it is with just a click, and I'm sure it's like gathering data, probably a mouse signature across the screen or something like that.

[00:06:13] Uh, but it works way easier.

[00:06:15] Megan: Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's based on, or it leverages the same technology behind Cloudflare's Managed Challenge Solution, which is, their smart alternative to capture, but it's, available, to everyone. So you don't have to be, utilizing network. You don't have to be a customer. It's, um, yeah, now available to, uh, all, it will be available to, obviously to all our customers and, It's just, it's marketing itself as a capture free, frustration, free experience for visitors.

[00:06:45] And obviously also with a big focus on privacy. , if you have had, concerns with Google's privacy, um, issues, obviously it's gonna be a great alternative. Of our customers who are looking for something a bit different.

[00:06:58] Matt: Right. Give our data to yet another big organization, but hey, it's, it's just an alternative to, to, to Google. Uh, Hasn't done anything to upset the world just yet.

[00:07:10] Megan: yet. I, I mean, I, I would say they're saying on their site, that they are always going to preserve the privacy of web visitors on your site. So that is, uh, written in, as their marketing spiel at the moment. So we all see, but, that's their . Promise. Yep.

[00:07:26] Matt: Fantastic. speaking of an organization that cares about their customers, uh, this week I had the pleasure of, interviewing Dave Smith from Gravity Wiz, which has Gravity Perks. one of our certified developers has a ton of add-ons, uh, to Gravity Forms, really helps expand the ecosystem of gravity forms.

[00:07:46] let's hop into this conversation with Dave.

[00:07:51] That discussion with Dave was fantastic. look, I've known, obviously have been using gravity forms for, uh, over a decade. I've known how, expanse, the universe of, of gravity forms is no pun intended, but gravity wiz has just a ton of stuff and, it really does expand upon.

[00:08:10] What gravity forms, uh, is capable of,

[00:08:13] I was pleasantly surprised, talking to Dave to see how far he's taking the, the add-ons.

[00:08:17] Megan: Yeah, absolutely. He's actually part of our certified developer program. and we've got some, amazing developers in that program all creating, equally as fascinating stuff. So, um, yeah, it's definitely worth checking out. our certified developer , add-on directory so you can have a look and see what they're up to, what they're offering. There

[00:08:38] Matt: We, we are working on, um, a beta group. We hinted at that

[00:08:43] Megan: we are. Yeah.

[00:08:43] Matt: in. Earlier in the show, um, folks listening to this perhaps already received an email about it sometime ago. , beta group. , we are introducing our new beta add-ons, including turnstile,

[00:08:56] May 22nd. If fingers crossed, [00:09:00] all goes well, that date should stand, um, a live. Q and a livestream, dare I say webinar, to the beta group only, right? So if you want to be part of the beta group, you have to click the link in the show notes. It's the beta user group. It'll take you to a registration form.

[00:09:17] You have to be a license holder. Of Gravity forms, there's a Facebook group in an email newsletter. Now, potentially in the future we'll have something else for folks to communicate on. if you're not a fan of Facebook, just stay connected to the newsletter, cuz we'll be dropping, um, our recordings of our live streams there.

[00:09:35] And all of our communication we will, we'll actually start on the email newsletter. So if you wanna be part of the Gravity Forms beta user group, again, click the link in the show notes that'll take you there. , I think the product team. Is looking for feedback, right? Like big surprise, they're looking for engagement, they're looking for feedback on the product.

[00:09:55] Megan: Yeah, definitely. And it's, uh, like you said, it's a new program, we're pretty excited about it. We're excited to show, , what we're working on to our customers. Uh, we're excited to see what they think of it.

[00:10:06] Matt: And that'll be going out in email as well. Again, join that, newsletter to subscribe and get access to that in our show notes. Uh, well in our internal show notes for this, episode you wrote down Google Analytics update. tell me more about the Google Analytics update. Have you heard anything? I haven't found anything.

[00:10:25] What's the deal with Google Analytics? I know where the whole world is going. Oh my God. How do we get to GA four? Uh, before all of this stuff burns down, do you have any insight for us?

[00:10:36] Megan: I mean, I dunno if I've got the insight, but I know we, we ourselves are moving, uh, are migrating at the moment. So we are dealing with it firsthand. Uh, I mean, I'm sure everyone using Google Analytics as well aware. if you go into your universal count, count at the moment, there's a massive warning sign with a countdown timer to stress you

[00:10:54] Matt: I love it when software does that to you, right? Like, warning, this is all going to implode if you

[00:11:00] Megan: Yeah. Yep. Everything is going to never work again if you don't act now. So, if you are on, on a free account, Google, uh, analytics, universal free account to migrate to GA four. which side note actually is an amazing platform. Um, I'm from the uk. We have a huge SEO conference, that runs once a year in the city that I live in.

[00:11:20] And, uh, I actually went last month to a training day. It was like a fringe training event and did a whole day's training on g4 and it was fascinating. So, um, if you are, if you haven't yet looked into it, I would recommend some sort of, uh, course there's some online boot camps I've seen advertised. Um, it's definitely worth finding out more about because, uh, the custom reporting, for example, is.

[00:11:43] Really impressive. And, um, from a marketing point of view, I'm very excited about what we can do with it going forwards. Um, but the initial steps obviously are to migrate to GA four. and then from Gravity forms point of view, If you have got our Google Analytics add-on [00:12:00] installed, you will need to take some action.

[00:12:02] we have a 2.0, update coming soon. when that comes out, you will need to update the add-on, go in and reauthenticate with Google Analytics, and you will also need to update your existing feeds now, in preparation for that. last week we, Released Google Analytics add-on 1.3. and as part of that, release, we are, letting people know, what's coming.

[00:12:27] And we have also blocked auto updates. So when 2.0 comes, you will need to go in and manually update. And that is because, if you don't, reauthenticate and, update your feeds, your data will not be processed to GA four.

[00:12:41] Matt: If, if you heard me say a B U earlier, just throw that out the window. already

[00:12:47] Megan: Oh, yes. Absolutely not. In fact, yeah, absolutely not appropriate in this case.

[00:12:52] I mean, uh, we do, we would like you to update to 1.3 if you don't have automatic, uh, updates enabled. but then after that, when 2.0 comes yet, you will need to take some action. So, keep an eye out for that. it's, an important one.

[00:13:06] Matt: Did you preface the, I'm from the UK because, uh, in Google Analytics there's less data about visitors than there are in the us. Is that why you had to preface it with the uk We have better data privacy policies.

[00:13:20] Is that what's, is that what you were hinting at?

[00:13:22] Megan: Absolutely not. But I should have prefaced it when I talked about beater. Cause I know I say that, uh, very

[00:13:26] Matt: No.

[00:13:26] Megan: different.

[00:13:29] Matt: Oh man. Speaking of struggling with code, I'm not a coder and I wrote this thing on the Gravity Forms blog. WordPress plus Gravity forms a no code solution. I. look, I think it's pretty fairly obvious for folks who are listening to this podcast that, it is a fantastic no-code solution.

[00:13:47] , this combination of gravity forms and our add-ons in our ecosystem, provides, Coders, of all sorts, uh, because there's varying degrees of capabilities. Like I can do HTML and c s s, but that's where I stop. one might consider me a coder because I can do that. Um, but then there's engineers and, and, and developers above me.

[00:14:06] So, um, I look at it as a great platform to build these things. you can. Hear some of that talk, in this interview with Dave that was previously played. If you skipped around the podcast and you didn't hear my interview with Dave Cycle back a few minutes and you can listen to Dave and I chat about it.

[00:14:22] but then I also have a future episode coming up with another certified developer now referenced as Cosmic Giant was once called for Gravity. We talk a lot about no-code solutions and how you can build an entire business, with add-ons and gravity forms to service customers. And I think that's a really powerful tool in this day and age.

[00:14:42] Megan: I read that article, Matt, that you wrote, and I loved it, and I could totally relate, especially as someone, in marketing, gravity forms, obviously we set it up, uh, it collects our customer data, it collects our leads data, and it automatically sends it where we want. Uh, Didn't even need to think about code, let alone [00:15:00] write any, um, and like you said, and like we talked about earlier, it doesn't just stop with gravity forms.

[00:15:06] It's our whole ecosystem.

[00:15:07] Dave was talking about earlier, really complex things.

[00:15:10] We should also mention here, gravity Flow, which, used to be a certified developer and was. We actually, gravity Forms actually acquired it, last summer.

[00:15:19] It's, a really powerful automation tool.

[00:15:22] Matt: There's a stigma around no code, especially in the WordPress space. There's a lot of purist, right?

[00:15:26] Where customizing WordPress, uh, they need to open up a code editor and do all this stuff, especially the days of like functions, p h p. But you're certainly not coding your contact form from scratch. Why would you? Right? You look at that and you say, no, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna just buy gravity forms and, and use that solution.

[00:15:44] Sometimes what people perceive as like shortcuts is, is also perceived as like this. I don't know, like bad thing, like, oh, you, you should always do things the hard way, right?

[00:15:54] People don't hate their washer machines. They're not going outside scrubbing their clothes on a wash board anymore, putting it in a bucket and da.

[00:16:01] I just, I will never do it the easy way anymore. No. Like, we find an easy path, an easy scalable path, and, um, no code can vary depending on who you are, what you do. And I think, um, gravity forms is set up to, to, to be the hub of that for WordPress.

[00:16:17] Megan: Let us do the hard work for you.

[00:16:18] Matt: ' We'll move into our What's new with WordPress segment. We look at three links that we think might be of interest to you as a WordPress user, freelancer, or agency owner in the space. Something that, um, that you'll be attending, uh, right around the corner. Megan, I, I think you're attending right Word, camp Europe.

[00:16:35] Megan: Yes, that's right. Yep. It's in, Athens. So only about three hours flight for, for me. obviously some of our US guys. much longer. But, we are sponsoring, uh, we're sending a team and, we can't get, we can't wait to get there. we attended Word Camp US and we also flew out to, Bangkok for the first ever Word, camp Asia in February.

[00:16:57] Uh, both were great, great events. Uh, the word Camp US was our first, uh, event since Covid, so that was special. And, um, word Camp Asia was the first ever word camp. In Asia. So that was also a really special occasion and really nice to be a part of. Um, and it, it was really well run. Um, the volunteers did an amazing job, uh, for their first ever.

[00:17:20] You would never have known it was their first ever work camp. So, uh, great to be a part of. Um, yeah. And work Camp Eu. Here we come.

[00:17:28] Matt: June 6th through the eighth, uh, look for the gravity form. And now are we having, uh, such an elaborate booth as, as, as we had in Asia? Cuz that one was pretty phenomenal.

[00:17:38] Megan: uh, it's a similar design. It is a little bit smaller. It's a much bigger event.

[00:17:42] We've got our, different, niche space gravity, uh, Things to play with. I'll say no more than that. And uh, obviously we've got all, all our swag that we are well known for.

[00:17:55] we'll have our t-shirts, our stickers, and a few other bits and bobs. We're also going to be running a [00:18:00] giveaway, uh, more to come on that in the next few weeks. Um, so if you are attending. Please swing by our booth. We love to chat with customers and hear what you've been up to at Gravity Forms and we love to meet new people.

[00:18:12] Just talk, uh, WordPress generally. So, um, swing by and say hi, please.

[00:18:17] Matt: I always love the design of our t-shirts. Check those out. They go fast in the Gravity Forms booth.

[00:18:22] Megan: they do go fast. we've nearly given away all our t-shirts in the first day. were camia, so. Yep. Don't hang around. Come and find us.

[00:18:30] Matt: Eric Cark from the WP Minute, uh, writes about 20 years of WordPress, the impact on freelancers. WordPress is celebrating, it's 20th. Birthday next week, or this week when you're listening to it, but next week for us. and he breaks down, uh, all of the important sort of milestones and a lot of it we actually hinted at, here today, obviously 20 years in two decades. technology is zillion years old, right? And what, what he writes about is it's a proven, reliable foundation. for any project. And you can, uh, debate that depending on your, uh, coding language of choice. Um, but I think 20 years stands the test of time and still plenty of opportunities for monetization.

[00:19:15] Again, we're, we're talking to our certified developers here at. At in the Gravity Forms ecosystem, they're building solutions for us. Folks are using gravity forms to do different things. There's still plenty, uh, of opportunity here. You might have to get a little bit more, I don't know, lean and mean with your, with your marketing and, and standing out as an agency or freelancer.

[00:19:36] but there's definitely opportunities still, which you can't really say, uh, many other 20 year old pieces of software still have. The opportunity that WordPress has. So it's, it's definitely a good read and I encourage you to check that out. Again, link in the show notes, last article or last.

[00:19:57] Bit of news that we wanted to just point your attention to. Covered by WP Tavern, future Podcast guest, right here on breakdown. Michelle Chet. anyone who spends any time in the WordPress community has probably come across Michelle's work recently launched wp speakers.com. Wp speakers.com if you're looking for, a guest for your podcast, somebody to speak at your virtual event, or in-person event, or if you wanna register to be a person, who.

[00:20:26] Could be chosen, for one of those, tasks. You can go to wp speakers.com. It's a free registry to do that. Check that out. At the time of this recording, there's just over 200 people registered, and I'm sure by the time this episode goes out, there'll probably be 300 plus knowing, uh, knowing Michelle in, in the reach.

[00:20:43] Uh, so it's a pretty fantastic website to, uh, browse and, and meet new people in the WordPress community.

[00:20:49] Megan: Yeah. Great project there.

[00:20:51] Michelle's a big advocate for, underrepresented groups in the WordPress community. And hopefully it will help, people make, informed choices when they're [00:21:00] inviting people, onto their podcasts and onto their, to different events.

[00:21:04] Matt: Sadly, though not powered by Gravity forms. We won't hold that against Michelle, but I'll ask her when she's on the podcast. That's it for the breakdown episode today. We're still in soft launch mode everyone. Thanks for tuning in. if you are somebody listening to this, you're one of the lucky ones that knows about this podcast before it has really launched out, into the world.

[00:21:26] Any feedback you have, Would be fantastic. You can tweet at us. you can email me, you can go to our contact form on our page cuz we do things called contact forms and you can send us a note about the show. if you wanna be interviewed, go to form. F O R M M M, WTF form wtf. And click the link and fill out the form there.

[00:21:51] That link will also be in the show notes. Megan, it's fantastic hanging out with you today.

[00:21:57] Megan: If the, it's been fun, Matt. Thanks. My pleasure.