I was asked by a reader:

I’m using the THiCK theme for my new design blog. I noticed you were able to add thumbnail images above your blog posts on the home page. What would I need to do to enable this on my blog?

Well Jon, this can be done very simple, since the theme is already using the Tim Thumb script.

What you will need to do is find in your index.php file, the second loop. Which you can find on line 40.

<?php query_posts('offset=1&showposts=' . get_option('woo_other_entries') . '&cat=-' . $GLOBALS['ex_asides'] ); ?>

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>	

	<div class="post">
		<h2><a title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>" href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
		<div class="post-meta"><?php the_time('j/m/y'); ?> <span>|</span> <?php comments_popup_link('0 Comments', '1 Comment', '% Comments'); ?></div>
		<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
	</div>

<?php endwhile; ?>

Now we are going to add in the code. At line 43 we are going to add:

<?php if (get_option('woo_resize')) { // Check if we should use the image resizer ?>
                    <a title="Continue reading this entry..." href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><img src="<?php echo bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/thumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true); ?>&amp;h=80&amp;w=280&amp;zc=1&amp;q=90" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
                <?php } else { ?>
                    <a title="Continue reading this entry..." href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><img src="<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "image", $single = true); ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
                <?php } ?>

That’s it, just make sure that in the THiCK options panel you choose the “resize” option, or the image might break the layout. Or you may change the this code: $post->ID, "image", to: $post->ID, "image_thumb", and use a separate image for the lower blog.

Everything is done online or through digital media in this era of digitalization. When it comes to small and large organizations, marketing and advertising are now highly preferred. Because of its effective tactics, email marketing has grown in popularity.

It entails distributing commercial and promotional messages to your target audience. So, if you want to grow your business, you’ll need to build an email list with active subscribers.

13 Best WordPress Email Marketing Plugins for 2022

Have a look at the 13 best WordPress email marketing plugins for 2022:

1. HubSpot

It is a platform that offers a reliable email marketing tool full of advanced features. It is the perfect plugin to be used for professional email services.

Features

• Facilitates the creation of well-designed emails through drag-and-drop editor
• Email templates for goal-based marketing are available in the free version
• Allows personalizing content, CTAs, list memberships, attachments, etc.
• Performs optimization of various email campaigns through analytics
• The free version allows access to CRM and all sales tools for essential operations
• Suitable for any kind of business with great flexibility
• Easy to use and quite affordable

2. ConvertKit

Convertkit helps you capture more subscribers and transform them into leads. You can easily place the lead-capturing subscription on WordPress with the help of it.

Features

• Drag and drop designer embeds data field of your choice on the subscription form easily
• Allows creation of a customized newsletter in a few minutes
• Helps in tracking the rate of conversion on the homepage dashboard
• Integrations with various eCommerce platforms
• Allows sending newsletters initially to around 1000 subscribers
• Automated and user-friendly
• Offer great tools to help you execute tasks more efficiently

3. Sumo

It is one of the popular plugins that assist in converting one-time visitors to permanent subscribers through well-designed pop-ups and newsletters.

Features

• Subscription forms are pre-designed to be chosen easily
• ROI can be checked from every Email Subscribers and Sales
• Facilitates with a drag-and-drop Builder
• The Lite version is available for free, but the premium version costs $49 per month
• Highly responsive design and effective targeting tools
• Sumo List Builder helps in growing email lists quickly
• Easy to integrate, and subscription can be triggered anytime

4. Newsletter

It is a very easy plugin that gathers emails and sends newsletters without any lengthy setup. You do not need to panic about sending emails to different groups as it automates the process smoothly.

Features

• Contains a customizable widget or form to gather email addresses
• Helps you create newsletters through a responsive drag-and-drop technique
• Helps to configure plugins through a central status panel
• Messages for different audiences can be sent simultaneously by proper categorization
• Provides many premium extensions for enhanced functionality
• The most effective plugin for targeted email campaigns
• Allows for the segmentation of your choice with no complexity
• Automation options are limited

5. MailChimp

MailChimp comes with extensive features to assist you in writing quality content for newsletters. You get a chance to generate Mailchimp lists for almost 2000 subscribers.

Features

• Integrates nicely with key WordPress plugins
• Allows you to rapidly create attractive forms or integrate the plugin with an existing form
• Mailchimp’s user sync tool enables automated subscriber updates
• When a form is submitted, email alerts can be sent automatically
• Personalizes the email and sends it directly instead of using Mailchimp
• Each attempted sign-up generates a report
• Helps you to see which signup methods and pages are the most effective on your site

6. SendinBlue Now Brevo

It is one of the smartest and most intuitive plugins that consists of a variety of marketing and sales tools.

Features

• It helps you to either start from scratch or use a template to create your message
• Customize the digital marketing content to fit your brand. After that, choose your recipient and send your message when it’s convenient for you
• It helps you plan ahead of time and send emails to smaller sections of your subscribers
• It facilitates you to choose parameters based on gender, geography, purchase history, and other factors. Then, send personalized emails to the people you wish to contact
• Custom subscription forms may be built and displayed in posts, pages, and sidebars
• The dashboard provides real-time data and insights about the performance and deliverability of emails

7. Mailster

Mailster is a famous WordPress email marketing plugin used by thousands of people. It facilitates an effective promotion of your website through newsletters and email.

Features

• Drag and drop builder helps in creating mobile-ready campaigns
• Very polite and helpful customer service
• Self-contained WordPress plugin to manage everything from the dashboard
• Facilitates mobile and retina-ready designs
• Campaign builder that is simple to use and drag and drop
• Simple to use and interact with other WordPress plugins.
• Advanced analytics are of great use
• Contains an autoresponder that can be controlled by you

8. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is well-known for its amazing services and lets you choose from a wide range of programs. It is integrated with the top website platforms and contact form plugins, so it will meet all of your demands after you try it out.

Features

• Lead generation software increases the subscribers and email lists
• Facilitates with over 65 ready-made templates to choose from
• Contains a robust targeting and segmentation engine
• A straightforward drag-and-drop builder
• Advanced and actionable analytics is an option.
• With ease, integrate with various websites and eCommerce platforms

9. Ninja Kick

Ninja Kick is a premium list-building WordPress email marketing plugin for your website.

Features

• An opt-in form in a non-obtrusive pop-up attracts visitors to your site.
• This plugin is one of the best out there for taking care of all of your email marketing needs because it is compatible and easy to use.
• Layouts that are both responsive and appealing
• Google tracking incorporated
• Supports popular email marketing services like MailChimp, Constant Contact, FreshMail, MailPoet, and others.
• Choose from a variety of pre-made form layouts
• Responsive and mobile-friendly designs
• Inbuilt advanced floating buttons

10. WP Subscribe

It’s a WordPress subscription plugin that you may customize and link to your subscription service. Running a successful blog necessitates having an email subscriber list.

Features

• Works with popular email marketing platforms like Aweber, Mailchimp, GetResponse, and others.
• Allows you to modify the forms and popups with an endless number of colors to match your theme and brand style.
• Integration with all of the top SEO plugins for increased visitor exposure and more subscriber acquisition.
• Includes a built-in widget for displaying your subscription form in the sidebar.
• Allows you to choose from a variety of animation effects for the popup.
• There’s a disable option if you don’t want the popup or subscription box to appear on certain pages or articles.
• Provides a popup preview option for testing your popup before making it live.

11. Convert Pro

Because it’s one of Astra’s products, this plugin comes packaged with the theme. It has a lot of features that can help you turn your website visitors into leads, customers, and subscribers.

Features

• The simple editor lets you create stunning popups and opt-in forms.
• Simple drag-and-drop helps you customize it to fit your brand and design
• Allows you to use exit-intent technologies to keep leaving visitors on your site and get their attention
• A/B test functionality to develop and test different design variations
• Helps you analyze designs in detail and select the best ones for customers

12. MailOptin

MailOptin is a WordPress popup and form builder plugin that allows you to create forms such as user registration and subscriptions.

Features

• Popups can be used to add forms, customized messaging, and call-to-actions to your website.
• Provides sidebar widgets, notification bars, and various other advanced features
• Simplifies the process of sending email newsletters
• Automated emails can be sent to all of your registered users or a specified group of people
• Allows you to plan out your email campaigns ahead of time
• Contains beautiful and responsive email templates for your newsletters
• Has built-in analytics to help you make better decisions and improvements based on the data you collect.

13. Icegram

Icegram offers Email Subscribers and newsletters, a WordPress plugin for email marketing that is both simple and successful. As a fully-featured plugin, it meets the needs of everyone, whether you are a blogger, website owner, marketer, or developer.

Features

• Facilitates with the option of sending welcome emails to new subscribers
• Send out automatic notifications to subscribers when new posts are published
• Additionally, an HTML editor can be used to create visually appealing broadcasts
• opportunity to transmit well-designed broadcasts to your subscribers
• Displays or sends 12 different sorts of messages
• Almost 120+ ready-to-use campaign templates included, including subscription forms, special offers, and more
• Keep the subscription box wherever on your site to gather leads easily
• The administrator can also receive email notifications regarding new user signups
• Allows you to give/restrict access to your subscribers for specific jobs using the access control feature

Conclusion

Email marketing is quite helpful to generate awareness about your brand at a faster pace. With the help of various WordPress plugins used for this purpose, you can accomplish your business goals.

Another tool that is not listed and is probably the most widely used is Grammarly.

And some other tools that may interest you. These are affiliate links some I use, some I don’t, so before using, please investigate thoroughly SemRush, Invideo, Squirly Products like Squirly SEO, Gravity Forms, Wpforms, OptinMonster, Buy Website Traffic, AI-powered Marketing, Press Release Distribution Made Easy, Track and Protect your Online Marketing, #1 Press Release Distribution Service, Email lists and Distribution Tech, Placeit Envato, Monster Insights, SmashBallon, WPwebHost, Rytr, Canva, QuillBot, Shortly AI, Market Muse, Content Studio, Social Pilot, Strinkingly, CircleBoom, TailWind, Hotjar, The Hoth, Linkilo, CleanMail, HexoWatch, NetPeak, SerpStat, SiteChecker, SproutSocial, WeVideo, Social Dog, EzMob, Sign Now, Tidio, WP Data Tables, Copymatic, HeyGen, Synthesia, Fliki, ElevenLabs, ADcopy, Beehiiv, EduBirdie

Author’s Bio

Pearl Holland composes exceptionally well-crafted pieces of content. She is an exemplary essay writer for hire to assist various social campaigns with her thought-provoking content. Her passion for writing can be seen through the masterpieces she creates.

The landscape of AI chips in 2024 presents a fascinating study of technological evolution, corporate strategy, and market dynamics. By analyzing NVIDIA’s announcements, engaging with industry experts, and scrutinizing news and analyses, we gain a clearer picture of the future trajectory of AI chips.

NVIDIA: A Behemoth in the AI Chip Market

NVIDIA’s position in the AI chip market has been akin to a colossus, boasting a staggering market share and record-breaking performances. In 2023, NVIDIA’s H100 GPUs were selling rapidly, underpinning its trillion-dollar valuation. However, a deeper look into the industry suggests a more nuanced scenario.

Breaking Records with NVIDIA Eos

NVIDIA’s AI supercomputer, Eos, powered by an impressive 10,752 H100 Tensor Core GPUs, shattered previous records. It completed a GPT-3 model training benchmark in just 3.9 minutes, a significant leap from the 10.9 minutes recorded six months prior. This achievement demonstrates NVIDIA’s prowess in scaling AI model training, making more powerful AI models accessible in shorter times.

The MLPerf Benchmark Triumph

NVIDIA’s dominance was further cemented by its performance in the MLPerf benchmarks, where it demonstrated the fastest performance and greatest scaling across nine benchmarks. In the MLPerf HPC, dedicated to AI-assisted simulations on supercomputers, NVIDIA’s H100 GPUs delivered up to twice the performance of its A100 predecessors.

The Evolving AI Model Training Landscape

While NVIDIA’s advancements are noteworthy, the broader AI model training landscape is witnessing significant changes. NVIDIA’s scaling efficiency, attributed to its comprehensive stack of hardware, software, and networking, has been a key factor in its success. However, alternatives like Microsoft Azure are catching up, offering comparable results in benchmarks like GPT-3.

Sustainability and Accessibility

Despite the race to stockpile NVIDIA GPUs, the sustainability of such practices is questionable. The long lifetime value of NVIDIA chips, like the V100 still in use since 2017, suggests a trend of extended usability. Moreover, the necessity of training new Gen AI models from scratch is being challenged. Many organizations are likely to opt for pre-trained models or APIs, reducing the dependency on high-end GPUs.

The Competitive Landscape and NVIDIA’s Challenges

While NVIDIA’s scaling strategy has set a high bar, it’s not without challenges. Its market dominance raises concerns about industry health, and competitors are gearing up.

Intel and Others in the Fray

Intel’s Aurora, featuring 60,000 Ponte Vecchio GPUs, and other supercomputers with diverse chip architectures are significant contenders. These systems, capable of high-performance computing, signal a competitive market with varied offerings.

Software Stack and CUDA’s Role

NVIDIA’s CUDA has been a cornerstone of its dominance, but the emergence of frameworks like PyTorch 2.0 and OpenAI’s Triton is disrupting this advantage. These developments are enabling NVIDIA’s competitors to build their own stacks and diminish NVIDIA’s software moat.

The Question of Market Share

Despite NVIDIA’s relentless innovation, having a single vendor with an overwhelming market share is not ideal for industry health. Increased competition, brought by players like AMD, Intel, and newer entrants, is expected to foster more choice, innovation, and potentially more favorable pricing for consumers.

Looking Ahead: AI Chips in 2024

In 2024, the AI chip market is poised to be a battleground of innovation, performance, and scalability. While NVIDIA continues to lead, the gap is narrowing as competitors introduce powerful alternatives. The focus is not just on performance but also on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and efficiency in both training and inference workloads.

Future Projections and Considerations

The AI chip industry in 2024 will likely see a more balanced landscape, with NVIDIA facing stiffer competition. This shift could lead to more diversified and cost-effective AI solutions for organizations. However, the translation of benchmark achievements into real-world impact, usability, and TCO for AI development and deployment remains a complex equation.

NEWS

Nvidia’s Next-Gen GPU: The B100 Blackwell AI Powerhouse

Hold on to your hats, tech enthusiasts, because Nvidia is about to unleash a beast of a graphics processing unit (GPU) that will make even the most powerful supercomputers blush. The B100 Blackwell, set to hit the market in 2024, is poised to double the performance of its predecessor, the H200, and take AI computing to new heights.

A Performance Boost Like No Other

The B100 Blackwell is not just another incremental upgrade; it’s a quantum leap in GPU performance. Its architecture, named after David Harold Blackwell, a pioneer in game theory and information theory, is designed to handle the most demanding AI workloads with ease.

Nvidia claims that the B100 will boast significantly higher memory bandwidth compared to its predecessor, thanks to an enhanced version of the HBM3e memory technology. This boost in bandwidth will be crucial for powering the next generation of large language models (LLMs) and other AI applications.

A Strategic Move for Nvidia

The introduction of the B100 Blackwell is a strategic move for Nvidia, solidifying its position as the leader in AI computing. The company is committed to an annual release cycle for its GPUs, with the X100 and GX200 chips planned for 2025 and beyond. This cadence ensures that Nvidia remains at the forefront of AI innovation.

While some critics have raised concerns about Nvidia’s pre-announcement strategy, suggesting it might be a misleading marketing tactic, there’s no denying the company’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of GPU performance. The B100 Blackwell is a testament to this commitment, and it’s sure to be a game-changer for the AI industry.

So, if you’re looking for the ultimate GPU to power your AI endeavors, keep an eye out for the B100 Blackwell in 2024. It’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.

More News

NVIDIA’s Meteoric Rise: A Tale of Innovation, Agility, and a Workplace Built for Collaboration

In the whirlwind of technological advancements, NVIDIA stands as a towering figure, its valuation soaring to a staggering $1.2 trillion, a remarkable 250% increase in a single year. This phenomenal growth is not merely a stroke of luck but a testament to the company’s strategic positioning in the AI landscape, particularly in technologies like ChatGPT, coupled with its unwavering commitment to fostering an innovative and collaborative work environment.

At the heart of NVIDIA’s success lies its flat organizational structure, a bold move that has set the company apart from its competitors. By eliminating layers of management, NVIDIA has created a nimble and responsive organization, where information flows freely, enabling swift decision-making in an ever-changing technological landscape.

As Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, aptly puts it, “When you’re moving that fast, you want to make sure that information is flowing through the company as quickly as possible.”

Further solidifying its position as an industry leader, NVIDIA unveiled its state-of-the-art headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in early 2022. Spanning an impressive 750,000 square feet, the headquarters embodies the company’s philosophy of enhancing employee performance through thoughtful design.

One of NVIDIA’s architects, Ko, succinctly captures the essence of the company’s approach to workspace design: “A successful workplace needs to be a destination and not an obligation, so designing a comfortable place that reflects a company’s culture is also very important.”

The Voyager office, a hallmark of NVIDIA’s commitment to innovation, defies conventional notions of office spaces. Engineers, once confined to traditional workstations, now navigate a dynamic environment that encourages collaboration and creativity.

Inspired by Santa Clara’s enviable climate, the architects aimed to create a seamless integration between the workplace and nature. The four-acre workspace incorporates parks, ‘treehouses’ for gatherings, and shading trellises adorned with solar panels, blending seamlessly into the building’s structure.

NVIDIA’s Voyager office achieves a remarkable fusion of the indoor and outdoor working experience. To ensure an even distribution of natural daylight, the architects strategically added skylights to the roof, bringing people closer to the building’s glass façade.

Ko eloquently summarizes the essence of this groundbreaking design: “The true innovation of the Voyager office is how the interior environment makes it feel like you’re working outside.” This emphasis on connecting employees with nature not only enhances well-being but also fosters a sense of inspiration and creativity.

As NVIDIA looks to the future, it envisions workspaces that offer employees greater flexibility and contribute to healthier and more comfortable environments. By refining workplace designs based on user feedback and usage patterns, the company aims to drive continued innovation and resilience in the years to come.

NVIDIA’s ascent to a $1.2 trillion valuation is not just a testament to its technological prowess but a holistic approach to organizational structure and workspace design. The flat hierarchy ensures nimble decision-making, while the Voyager office stands as a testament to the company’s commitment to fostering a dynamic and inspiring work environment.

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, NVIDIA’s success serves as a blueprint for companies aspiring to not only lead in innovation but also to create workplaces that reflect a culture of collaboration, efficiency, and employee well-being. The journey from chip production to workspace innovation has propelled NVIDIA into a league of its own, defining the future of work in the tech industry.