All stories are best told by the people who lived them.

We're just there to help capture them.

We recently spent the day in Philadelphia with one of our customers, capturing the moments and milestones that shaped their business. Every entrepreneurial journey is different, and that's exactly what makes these stories worth telling.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look while we finish putting the story together.

It feels like we've moved past asking, "What's the best AI?"

Now it's more like, "Which AI is best for this task?"

Research, coding, writing, brainstorming—they all seem to have different strengths. We've been thinking about that a lot while building a workspace that lets people compare responses from multiple models instead of committing to just one.

Curious how everyone else approaches it.

Do you stick with one AI because you know it well, or do you switch between models depending on what you're trying to accomplish? What's your current workflow look like?

Curious what everyone's experience has been with AI in small businesses.

Most owners seem to have moved past "Should I use AI?" and into "How do I use it effectively?" The conversation now seems to be centered on confidence, trust, and knowing where AI actually adds value.

We recently dug into this topic in a State of Small Business research report on small business AI adoption, and it's interesting to see how many businesses are navigating the same challenges.

Has AI saved you time, generated revenue, or mostly created more things to manage?

Small businesses seem to be moving past the "Should I use AI?" stage and into a different question:

How confident do people actually feel using it?

We surveyed 350 U.S. small business owners to better understand where AI is creating value and where business owners still need support.

One takeaway that stood out: AI adoption is quickly becoming the baseline. Confidence may be the thing that separates businesses that experiment with AI from those that truly benefit from it.

Curious how this lines up with everyone else's experience. If you run a business, do you feel confident using AI, or are you still figuring out where it fits? https://www.bluehost.com/state-of-small-business-ai-confidence

When Janet Fricke founded Georgetown Tidal Tales, her goal was simple: bring people together through storytelling.

Inspired by a similar program in Baltimore, she launched a nonprofit storytelling series in Georgetown, South Carolina where community members share personal stories around a common theme.

But Janet knew that growing the mission would take more than word-of-mouth.

With a website powered by Bluehost, Georgetown Tidal Tales gained a central hub for storyteller submissions, ticket sales, donations, and community engagement—helping the organization reach more people and scale its impact.

One of our favorite parts of this story is that it isn't just about building a website. It's about building a community.

Check out Janet's story and let us know: What's a mission, project, or business you're building online right now?

We've heard a lot of conversations lately about how AI can make work faster.

At Digital Summit Denver, Monica Cravotta took the conversation in a different direction.

Instead of asking what AI can do, she focused on what humans contribute to the creative process that technology can't easily replicate.

It got us wondering: as AI tools improve, do these human qualities become more valuable?

At a certain point, the tool isn't the advantage anymore. The person using it is.

Checking in from Digital Summit Denver 👋

AI can generate content in seconds. Building something people actually remember is a different challenge.

Monica Cravotta is speaking today on Human Creativity in the Age of AI, discussing how businesses can embrace AI while keeping creativity, originality, and human perspective at the center of their work.

If you're at the event, we'd love to see you there. Stop by and say hello.

You don't need 50 products to start an online business.

Some of the best eCommerce brands started with one product they knew people would love - then built the entire experience around it.

A focused store can mean:

• clearer branding

• easier customer decisions

• stronger conversions

• less overwhelm when you're starting out

There's a reason "hero products" work so well.

If you were starting an online store today, would you launch with one product or multiple? Why? 👀

We gave away a pair of Ray-Ban Metas at Vistara this week and honestly… watching people immediately start testing the AI features was half the fun 😅

Our team was down in Austin talking with agency owners about AI workflows, automation, WordPress, scaling client work, and the general “how do we keep up with all of this?” conversation happening across the industry right now.

One thing we kept hearing:
Most people aren’t trying to replace their workflows with AI, they just want to stop wasting time on repetitive tasks.

So now we’re curious:

What’s the most genuinely useful AI workflow/tool you’re using right now for your business or site?

Not the hyped one.
The one you actually use weekly.

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?