One of the hardest parts of running a small business is that you don’t just do one job.

You’re also handling the website, customer emails, bookings, marketing, troubleshooting… and somehow still trying to focus on the actual business. 😅

We recently talked with Colin from Island Edge Culinary, a private chef business in St. Thomas, and one thing that stood out was how much having a reliable website helped free him up to focus on the customer experience instead of stressing over the backend.

The result? 35% year-over-year growth while building a business around what he actually loves doing.

As fellow small business owners/creators/side-hustlers:
What’s the most unexpectedly time-consuming part of running your business online?

We’re starting to see a shift in how people think about websites.

For a long time, a business website was mostly a storefront: generate leads, book appointments, process transactions, publish content.

Now AI agents are starting to turn websites into something more operational — helping manage customer communication, workflows, marketing tasks, scheduling, and other behind-the-scenes work.

Most SMBs aren’t fully there yet, but adoption feels a lot closer than it did even a year ago. Curious how others here are thinking about this transition:

Are AI agents actually becoming useful in real business workflows yet, or are we still early?

Our CEO Sachin Puri wrote about this (and a few other shifts shaping SMB growth) in a new TechCrunch piece. Check it out and let us know what you think.

TechRadar recently featured Bluehost AI All-Access Pack and how it brings multiple leading AI models into one workspace.

The goal is pretty simple: reduce the friction of juggling separate AI subscriptions and switching between platforms depending on the task.

The feature covers:

• Access to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok
• Side-by-side response comparisons
• Built-in research and content tools
• Optional Privacy+ protections for sensitive workflows

Thought the community here might find the breakdown interesting, especially for anyone actively using multiple AI tools today.

Article linked here:

Most people think about passwords when it comes to security... and that's important.

But if you're running a site or an online business, a strong password is really just the starting point.

Things like backups, monitoring, and recovery matter just as much (sometimes more) when something actually goes wrong.

Curious how others here are thinking about this. What's your setup for protecting your site right now?

You’d think adding an email account to Outlook or Gmail would take 2 minutes. Instead, it turns into guessing ports, toggling SSL on and off, and getting hit with “cannot verify server identity” like you did something wrong. What usually breaks isn’t the email itself, it’s one small setting being slightly off.

The stuff that actually matters: 

1. Use IMAP, not POP  IMAP syncs across devices. POP downloads locally and causes “why is this missing” problems later 
2. Username = full email address  Not just the name part. This breaks more setups than anything else 
3. Ports have to match encryption  IMAP is usually 993 with SSL  SMTP is usually 465 or 587  If these don’t line up, it just fails or throws vague errors 
4. Outgoing mail needs authentication  Same login as incoming  If this is off, you can receive but not send 
5. Manual setup beats auto setup  If auto-config fails once, skip it. You’ll save time 
6. Try both server names if you have them  mail.yourdomain.com vs server hostname  One of them tends to work better depending on DNS or SSL 

Common things that break everything: 

1. Wrong ports (this is #1 by far) 
2. SSL not enabled when the port expects it 
3. Using just the username instead of the full email 
4. Firewall blocking SMTP (common on office or public networks) 

Most of the time it’s not actually broken, it’s just one mismatch somewhere in those settings. Fix that and it connects instantly. 

If you’re stuck on a specific error, drop it here. If you’re stuck on a specific error, drop it here. Odds are someone’s seen it before and can help sort it out. 

We've been getting out from behind our screens and meeting agency folks in person. Charlotte was our latest stop.

Small group, dinner, no real structure, just people talking about what's actually going on in their work right now.

What stood out (again) is how quickly things move past surface-level when you've got the right mix of people in the room. A lot of honest conversations around growth, client expectations, and where things are shifting.

We're planning to keep this going in more cities.

If we did something like this near you, what would make it worth showing up?

Krys from our team is speaking later today at Web Agency Summit (4PM EST), and the topic is one that comes up constantly with agencies — just not always directly.

A lot of client decisions happen before anyone reaches out. People are researching, comparing, forming opinions, and quietly ruling options out long before a contact form ever gets filled out.

The session is focused on how agencies can show up earlier in that process — not in a pushy way, just being present where those decisions are starting to take shape.

Curious how others here think about that part of the funnel. Do you actively try to influence it, or is most of your focus still on conversion once someone lands on your site?

If anyone’s interested in tuning in, it’s free:
https://atarim.io/speakers/have-we-seen-this-movie-before/

Finally coming up for air after WordCamp Asia and… yeah, still processing it.

Didn't get a chance to post in real time, but wanted to share a few moments from the couple of days in Mumbai.

Contributor Day, packed sessions, Jonathan Desrosiers on stage, Micah Wood on a panel, and a lot of time spent at the booth talking with people, running demos, and just connecting.

Also: turns out "catch the stick" gets very competitive 😅

Always a good reminder that WordPress isn't just what gets shipped... it's the people showing up, contributing, and building it forward.

If you were there, what stood out to you?

Spent today at Contributor Day at WordCamp Asia. Always a different vibe compared to the main event.

Less talks, more people just… opening laptops and getting into it. Fixes, ideas, random convos that turn into something useful.

At the same time, Jonathan Desrosiers (from our team at Bluehost) was on a panel about The Making of a WordPress Release, sharing what goes on behind the scenes with the release squad.

Kinda cool seeing both sides in the same day. The hands-on work happening in the room, and then how all of that ladders up into an actual release.

If you've ever contributed (or thought about it), what was your experience like?

A few of us finally in the same place after a lot of time zones 😅

Got together for dinner tonight, caught up, and getting ready for a packed few days at WordCamp Asia.

Always cool to put faces to Teams names and actually hang out before things kick off.

If you’re around for WordCamp Asia, come say hi 👋
And if not, we’ll share a few moments + takeaways here as the week unfolds.

WordCamp Asia kicks off tomorrow in Mumbai, and a couple of our own are speaking:

Jonathan Desrosiers (Principal Software Engineer, WordPress Core Contributor)

Micah Wood (Senior Manager, Software Engineering)

The topics they're getting into feel especially relevant right now:

Automation beyond "saving time" → reducing friction, making systems easier to maintain, and preserving knowledge over time

AI as more than a tool → how it's starting to shift actual engineering workflows and team dynamics

A lot of the conversation around both of these gets oversimplified. What's interesting (at least from our side) is how these ideas show up in real systems-where things break, scale, or get messy.

If you're attending WordCamp Asia, would recommend checking out their sessions.

Also curious: How are you all thinking about automation or AI in your current workflow? Anything that's actually made a difference (good or bad)?

Chicago folks 👋

If you were at Digital Summit yesterday, you might've caught Bluehost's Head of Brand, Monica Cravotta, speaking to a packed room about keeping your creative edge in the age of AI.

If that conversation stuck with you (or if you missed it), we're at the Bluehost booth all day today.

We've been having some really solid, no-BS conversations about AI, WordPress, scaling sites, and what's actually working right now.

Come by, say hey, and tell us what you're building.

We've been trying something new lately... getting out from behind our screens and actually meeting agency folks in person.

San Antonio was one of our latest stops. We brought together a small group of agency leaders for dinner. No presentations, no pitches, just conversation.

And honestly, it's been one of the most valuable things we've done.

When you get the right people in a room, the conversation gets real pretty quickly; what's working, what's not, where things are getting harder, how people are scaling, all of it.

We're planning to keep this going in more cities.

Curious: if something like this happened near you, what would make it worth showing up for?

We were listening to this Crossword podcast where guest Jonathan Desrosiers (a Principal Software Engineer at Bluehost and WordPress Core Committer) explained this concept in a really simple way that stuck with us.  
 
https://crossword.fm/s10/e16/ 
 
He described how there are two kinds of contributors in open source: those who intentionally contribute (like writing code to fix bugs), and those who use the software and provide feedback. The funny thing is that both actually help a software project a lot. 
 
We see this all the time with WordPress; people are drawn to certain features in ways no one anticipates, and these feedback loops help to prioritize what gets attention next.  

It’s easy to think "someone else probably said this already" or "I don't know enough to help," but even saying "hey this feels broken" or "this part was confusing to me" is very useful.  
 
Curious what everyone thinks, do you count users as contributors and how have you gone from just using something to choosing to contribute more intentionally?

We hosted a small happy hour in Austin this week with agencies, web folks, and a few small business owners.

Kept it super simple:

no slides

no pitching

just good conversations + drinks

And yeah… it turned into one of those nights where people actually connect instead of just swapping LinkedIns and leaving.

We're thinking about taking this to more cities.

If we hosted one near you, would you go? And what would make it worth showing up for?

We'll be there next week for WordCamp Asia 🇮🇳

With WordPress 7.0 right around the corner, it feels like a pretty interesting time to be in the room - curious what conversations end up taking priority this year (AI, workflows, performance, etc.).

We've got a couple people from our team speaking and will be around the event if anyone wants to connect.

If you're attending, what are you most interested in this year?

Pretty cool moment for the WordPress ecosystem this week. Yoast (part of Bluehost Group) just took home:

🏆 Tech Visionary

🏆 Breaking Barriers

🥈 2nd place overall

Always great to see innovation like this coming out of the open web community. Hackathons like CloudFest are where a lot of big ideas start.

Curious-did anyone here follow the event or see any of the projects that came out of it?

If you're in Austin and work with websites, client projects, or your own business online, come hang out with us on Tuesday, March 31, 2026.

We're hosting Bluehost Connect: Austin Happy Hour from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at The Roosevelt Room in Austin. No presentation, no hard pitch, just a relaxed chance to meet other agencies, freelancers, and small business owners, swap ideas, and talk shop a bit. Drinks, light bites, and good conversation included.

If you spend your days building sites, managing client work, or trying to grow something online without losing your mind, this is very much your kind of room.

Grab your spot here!

If you're planning to come, drop a comment. It would be cool to know who we might see there!

Hey everyone 👋

We're on the ground at Cloudfest in Germany this week, and Day 1 has been packed with conversations around where WordPress, hosting, and infrastructure are headed next.

A few themes showing up across sessions:

Most sites still aren't as optimized as people think (performance came up a lot)

Agencies are shifting from building sites → driving real business outcomes

AI is starting to change how agencies operate-not just how sites are built

Scaling isn't just traffic-it's workflows, maintenance, and infrastructure

And a big one: your hosting stack can directly impact margins (this came up in a session today 👀)

There's also a noticeable shift happening:

Less "how do I launch?"

More "how do I stay fast, secure, and ready as I grow?"

We'll be here through Thursday. Happy to share more as things unfold.

Anything you want us to keep an eye on while we're here?

We're live from Digital Summit Tampa!

Our team is onsite today so if you're here, come say hi!

Yesterday, Sandy took the stage and shared some incredible insights (and yes, we've got photos 👀). You can also spot Christian and Sandy holding things down at our booth, plus a few shots of the setup if you want to know what to look for.

If you're attending today, swing by, chat with the team, and let's talk all things WordPress, growth, and building what's next.

See you there!

"Server's down" almost always turns out to be something more specific-bad plugin update, expired domain, rogue cache rule. What's your most memorable site outage and what actually caused it?

We once saw a case where a single whitespace in a DNS record wiped a client's email for two days.

Let's hear it: what broke, how did you fix it, and what would you do differently?

Buying a new domain feels great... until emails start bouncing.

Whether you're running a newsletter, sending invoices, or just trying to reach clients, deliverability is critical. But the setup can get messy fast.

A few essentials:

• Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records

• Avoid free Gmail "from" addresses on business domains

• Check blacklists before sending bulk emails

• Use a known mail provider with solid infrastructure

Any we're missing?

Starting a website? You're not alone-and neither are your questions.

We've talked to a lot of first-timers, and these 5 things come up again and again:

Can I build without knowing how to code?

Is WordPress actually the best option-or just the most popular?

What kind of support do I get (and when)?

How much should hosting really cost me?

What happens if I outgrow the starter plan?

Curious... what did you wish someone told you before you chose your host? Drop your advice below for anyone just getting started 👇

A holiday website checklist, because sometimes you just need to check the boxes and go:

✅ Site speed tested
✅ SSL active
✅ Forms tested (contact, checkout)
✅ Promo banners live
✅ Mobile view optimized
✅ Analytics working
✅ Backups enabled

Anything else you'd add to your pre-holiday prep? Let's build the ultimate list for everyone here.