About employees, job titles, and professional growth
In 2019, I wrote a blog post titled Why your name should be your job title. At the beginning of Yoast, when we hired our first employees, I hated job titles. I also hated job descriptions. I found...
View ArticleWordPress – let’s market together
There are a lot of marketers working in the WordPress community. We even have a dedicated WordPress marketing team. But most of the marketing budgets within the WordPress world are spent on our own...
View ArticleChanges in the plugin business in the last 15 years
Note from Joost: Marieke and I have decided to start taking turns writing this weekly column, to even better reflect the multiple worlds within WordPress. So, this week, it’s me! When I started...
View ArticleJoosts and Mariekes
When working at Yoast with my husband, Joost de Valk, I often divide customers into the Joosts and the Mariekes. The Joosts were like my Joost: technically skilled, wanting to know everything about a...
View ArticleChatGPT is like having a dozen interns
I am an early adopter. At least, that’s what my wife says. I like trying new things. I’m interested in all new technologies and like to try and learn from them. AI and ChatGPT are not new anymore....
View ArticleThe WordPress Community Rocks
I can be rather critical of the WordPress Community. We’re not perfect. We could be more inclusive and more open. We could be more effective in improving WordPress. We could do more. And still, the...
View ArticleOn Cloudfest, hosts and WordPress
I am at Cloudfest this week, in Europapark in Germany. This is my second year visiting Cloudfest, and I truly enjoy it. Cloudfest reminds you that pretty much all hosts offer WordPress hosting, and...
View ArticleExplaining something difficult is…. difficult!
It is incredibly hard to explain something complicated. We all remember that teacher in high school that was great at explaining math. They made math seem so easy. And we remember that teacher that...
View ArticleThe future is open-source
I am an open-source fanatic. I started my open-source career by contributing to WebKit in 2005. WebKit is an open-source software component for rendering web pages (an essential part of first Safari...
View ArticleThe startup trick doesn’t exist
It only happens once in a blue moon: You’ll tweak one single thing in your messaging, your check-out, or your email list and that change is the trick. It changes everything, skyrocketing your sales...
View ArticleHow to become a founder
I became a founder when I started Yoast. However, I did not feel like a founder until I left Yoast. If you work in the company you founded, then your job is the role you have. I was CEO and, later on,...
View ArticleHello! It’s me! It’s the imposter syndrome!
I was scared to be the CEO of Yoast. I am scared to speak my mind on Twitter. I am terrified at the launch of any new product. I am still scared to present on stage. I am even scared to ask a question...
View ArticleThe biggest threat to the growth of WordPress: perceived security
Whenever I talk to web developers outside the inner circle of the WordPress community, it is bound to come up: WordPress security. It is the most important reason why a certain group of people does...
View ArticleStereotypes and gender inequality
In most Western societies, people tend to consider men and women equal. Most people agree that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. But are men and women genuinely equal?...
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