WordPress Update Notifications that let you be Proactive instead of Reactive

We’re making it easier for admins to stay on top of critical WordPress updates with Update Notifications.

We want to help you get off the WordPress updates hamster wheel:

… update → check for updates → test → update → check for updates → …

In this quick article we’ll outline what’s coming, how it helps you, and how you can get your hands on it.

WordPress updates find you, not the other way around

The idea that we need to keep plugins and themes up-to-date isn’t news to you. This is even more critical with security vulnerabilities that demand prompt action.

It’s a little bit like playing whack-a-mole… Lucky you!

Half the battle is just knowing the updates exist. So you log into each site to check. Or, use iControlWP that makes it easier to see and perform your updates in bulk.

But you still have to go looking for the updates in the first place.

Well, not any more…

With our new Update Notifications add-on, you can be informed of updates on your schedule.

Proactive vs Reactive – The Notification Advantage

I’m a huge Tim Ferriss fan (with perhaps one of the best podcasts available today!). He advocates several productivity principles that I try to subscribe to.

One such principle is “batching“- where you group similar tasks together in to groups. E.g. instead of handling emails throughout the day, you review and answer them less often at certain, fixed times of the day.

WordPress updates should be treated in the same way. Instead of repeatedly checking for updates, you only do them at a fixed time of the day or week.

Update Notifications facilitate this approach perfectly. It lets you pick a time of the day to be notified of updates, if there are any, and jump into it. When you’re done, you leave it until the next notification arrives.  This means:

• less time spent checking for updates
• less distraction and loss of focus on your core work
• greater productivity, quality, and higher efficacy in your core work
• … greater happiness! 😀

Greater happiness? Of course! If you spend less time on menial tasks, and more time doing the work you love doing, the better off you’ll be. 🙂

How Update Notifications work

It’s simple – pick the time and day to get notifications. We’ll then send you a list of available updates (since your last notification).

You can chose to have this email sent to you each day, or on a particular day during the week. Whatever you prefer.

The email will break down all updates by website so you can easily see what’s available. We even tie-in our security vulnerability data. In this way you can make an intelligent decision about the urgency of the update.

Here’s a summary of the notification features:

• Schedule the notification for daily or weekly.
• Set the time of day to receive the email
• See all your domains at-a-glance that have updates available
• See every plugin, theme, and WordPress core that has an update available
• For each update, see whether it is flagged as having a security vulnerability

How you can get Update Notifications

The Update Notifications feature is a paid add-on to the core iControlWP service. You can add it to any subscription and as with all add-ons it’s charged alongside your current plan.

You don’t pay any extra for each site, you just pay for the add-on. You can instead move to a plan that already includes the Update Notifications add-on.

Currently the Update Notifications add-on is included on the Pro plan by default, but you can add it to your subscription for a monthly cost of $7, €6, and £5 respectively.  This is the same cost regardless of the number of sites you have.

Questions or suggestions?

If you have any questions about this new feature addition, please do let us know.  We have further plans for it, but we’d love to hear your thoughts on it if you have any additions you’d like to see.

Thanks!