Neural & Narrative

Tag: wordpress

  • How I Turned an Idea into a Fully Functional WordPress Plugin (With a Little Help from Gemini) 🚀

    How I Turned an Idea into a Fully Functional WordPress Plugin (With a Little Help from Gemini) 🚀

    Ever wanted your StoryGraph reading lists to live right on your blog? I did and teaming up with Google’s Gemini as my AI vibe code partner turned it into a crash course in agile development and creative problem-solving.

    Lately, I’ve been on a mission to level up my Gen AI skills and not just in theory, but by actually building things. I’m not a developer by trade or even training, but I’ve been experimenting with what’s possible using tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini.

    Last night a project sort of took on a life of its own. I wanted to create a WordPress plugin that pulls in my StoryGraph reading lists and displays them on my blog. It started as a “let’s see if this is even possible” experiment and quickly evolved into a messy, fun, but very educational journey through AI-assisted coding and constant pivoting.

    During this project there were three big pivots:

    1️⃣ Scraping Strategy → 403s Everywhere

    Since The StoryGraph lacks an official API, the first idea was to have the plugin scrape my StoryGraph reading lists which was a solution that Gemini shared early on. Technically, it could’ve worked… but we immediately ran into 403 errors. StoryGraph’s anti-bot protection (shoutout to Cloudflare 👋) was not having it. And while the data was public, scraping without permission lives in a legal area that’s not something I wanted to mess with. It was time to pivot.

    2️⃣ RSS Feeds → Behind a Paywall → Deprecated Functionality

    Next up: RSS. We reworked the plugin to pull from StoryGraph’s XML feeds… only to hit another wall. Turns out they’re locked behind a “Plus” subscription. I ponied up and then found out the feeds were deprecated. Classic AI wild goose chase. Those “Check these statements. AI can be wrong.” warnings should indeed be heeded.

    3️⃣ Data Export → Bingo

    Finally, after digging through account settings, I spotted StoryGraph’s Export Data feature. One quick download later and boom: a clean, reliable source of truth. No scraping, no chasing ghosts. Just good old-fashioned data export.

    🔧 The Plugin Takes Shape

    The next pieces to build were the actual plug-in functionality which was much faster than figuring out how to retrieve the data.

    • Admin Upload: Built a simple upload screen in the WordPress admin where I can drop in the data file instead of relying on live fetches.
    • Smart Parsing: Gemini helped map out fields like Title, Author, and Read Status. We ironed out some bugs around file types and capitalization quirks.
    • Cover Art Magic: For a more visual display, we hooked into the Open Library API to grab book covers using ISBN numbers.

    📈 The Result

    What began as a plain text list can now be a polished, dynamic, and visual display of my reading life right on my WordPress site. This project wasn’t just about writing code. It was about thinking creatively, adapting on the fly, and using AI as a true vibe-coding partner to get to a smarter solution.

    🔗 You can check it out it here: jamesk.xyz/books

     

  • Easily Create and Sell Digital Goods: A Guide to Canva, Ghost, and WooCommerce

    Easily Create and Sell Digital Goods: A Guide to Canva, Ghost, and WooCommerce

    In the digital age, offering downloadable products like worksheets, templates, guides, or research reports can be a simple and effective way to provide value, build your brand, and generate passive income. Fortunately, tools like Canva, Ghost, and WooCommerce make creating and selling digital goods effortless, even if you’re not tech-savvy.

    Why Sell Digital Goods?

    Digital goods are incredibly appealing for several reasons:

    • Low overhead: No inventory or shipping costs.
    • Scalability: Create once, sell repeatedly.
    • Instant delivery: Immediate value for customers.
    • High profit margins: Minimal ongoing costs.

    Step 1: Creating Your Digital Product with Canva

    Canva is a user-friendly design platform ideal for making professional-quality digital products quickly:

    • Worksheets & Templates: Use Canva’s extensive library of templates to create visually appealing resources.
    • Guides & Reports: Combine Canva’s design tools to format insightful content clearly and attractively.
    • Ease of Use: Drag-and-drop functionality requires no prior design skills.

    Pro Tip: Export your creations as PDFs for easy sharing and professional presentation.

    Step 2: Hosting and Selling Your Product with Ghost

    Ghost is a sleek, user-friendly blogging platform perfect for creators and entrepreneurs:

    • Built-in Membership: Ghost effortlessly supports free or paid content, allowing you to offer exclusive downloads.
    • Easy File Hosting: Attach PDFs directly to your posts or pages for seamless digital delivery.
    • Simple Payments: Integrate Ghost with services like Stripe to manage payments with minimal setup.

    Pro Tip: Use Ghost’s built-in newsletters to instantly notify subscribers of new digital products, boosting engagement and sales.

    Step 3: Selling Your Product with WooCommerce for WordPress

    WooCommerce is a powerhouse e-commerce plugin designed specifically for WordPress, ideal for more robust digital stores:

    • Customizable Storefront: Easily create a branded online store.
    • Secure Transactions: Built-in support for multiple payment gateways.
    • Automatic Downloads: Digital products are securely delivered immediately after purchase.

    Pro Tip: WooCommerce provides analytics to help you track sales, customer behavior, and product performance, enabling informed marketing decisions.

    Choosing the Right Tool for You

    • Canva: Ideal for easy, professional-quality product creation.
    • Ghost: Perfect for bloggers and creators looking for simplicity and speed.
    • WooCommerce: Best suited for comprehensive, customizable e-commerce stores on WordPress.

    Whether you’re looking to supplement your income, provide added value to your audience, or build a full-fledged online store, Canva, Ghost, and WooCommerce provide intuitive, effective solutions to deliver digital goods effortlessly. Those aren’t the only options of course and I encourage you to continue researching what might be the best fit for you.