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You Don’t Need a Full App Stack to Build an App-Like Experience
Some developers think they need to ditch WordPress for Vue, Laravel, or Next.js to build “real apps.” But most of what people call “apps” comes down to a few behaviors: Guess what?WordPress can do all of that. (And so can Vue, and Laravel, and Next.js). Right now. No need to migrate your whole stack just…
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Non-newsletter Newsletters
Newsletters That Don’t Really Feel Like Newsletters (and Why They Work) When people talk about newsletters, they often mean a specific thing: a personal note, a predictable structure, a sense of cadence and continuity. But some of the most interesting newsletters today quietly ignore that playbook. They use email not as a genre, but as…
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Shifting Toward a Creator Platform Core
Over the past couple of months I’ve been neck-deep in PeakZebra’s product work—refining PZForms, testing microsite workflows, and building out the managed WordPress stack that will eventually underpin everything. But as often happens when you’re talking to customers, exploring integrations, and shipping features, a bigger pattern started to emerge. Thank god for that, by the…
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![Personalization Isn’t “Dear [First Name]”](https://peakzebra.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/blog-block3.png)
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Personalization Isn’t “Dear [First Name]”
When people talk about personalization in WordPress, they usually mean token replacement: swap in a name, show a member’s profile image, maybe list a user’s last few comments. That’s a start. But real personalization goes further. Personalization responds to the user’s salient facts. It almost isn’t personalization to just paste in the first name, because…
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Your Site Should Feel Like It Remembers You
Most websites act like goldfish. Every time you return, it’s like the first time. Shortest memory in the natural world (at least according to Ted Lasso). But a good site feels familiar. Recognizable. Maybe even a little empathetic. That doesn’t require a complex recommendation engine. It just means: WordPress is more than capable of this…
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The Future of WordPress Is Adaptive
What we used to call “responsive design” was all about screen size.Now, “responsive” should mean adaptive to context—not just devices. And all of that is achievable in WordPress. Adaptivity isn’t about complexity—it’s about relevance.The right interface for the right person at the right moment. Design isn’t static anymore. Your site shouldn’t be either. So how?…
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Why Substack Costs You More Than You Think (And How to Keep That Money)
If you’re a creator building an audience, platforms like Substack and Patreon may feel like the perfect solution. Yes, there are Substack costs, but they make the process dead simple. Yes, Patreon (and most of the other similar platforms) have percentage-of-revenue costs, but they make publishing simple and help you collect payments without much hassle.…
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WordPress as a Runtime, Not Just a CMS
So, sure: WordPress is a CMS. I think it’s sometimes the answer given as a defense against the cynical question: “What’s WordPress still good for these days?” It’s a pretty great CMS, honestly. But what if we don’t focus on the CMS aspect so much. I think there are more imaginative ways to think about…
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Stop Segmenting on Meaningless Distinctions
Most segmentation strategies go wrong before they even start. They sort prospects into neat little boxes based on company size, industry, or job title—details that may look good on a dashboard, but often say nothing about how someone actually buys. At PeakZebra, we believe segmentation should only exist to support smarter, faster sales. That means…
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What it takes just to get the product out the door
It’s horrifying to think about the number of times I’ve thought (and said out loud) that I was within three weeks of having the first sales of PeakZebra. It’s taken forever, literally forever, and there are reasons for this, some of them good, some of them stemming from deep-seated psychological shortcomings. My therapist long ago…
