Brian Jackson 🌵
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brianleejackson.com
Brian Jackson 🌵
@brianleejackson.com
Co-founder at forgemedia LLC. Previously CMO at Kinsta. I craft actionable content derived from first-hand experience and develop performance-driven WordPress plugins. ⚡

👨‍💻 Agency: forgemedia.io
📧 Newsletter: newsletter.brianleejackson.com
Two great new features in Chrome 145 DevTools. ⚡

1. New render blocking column.
2. Individual request throttling (enabled by default).
developer.chrome.com/blog/new-in-...
February 13, 2026 at 7:44 AM
Issue #52 of my monthly newsletter "Tidbits from Brian" just went out. 📧

My phone’s primary function is its biggest flaw. 📱

newsletter.brianleejackson.com/p/tidbits-fr...
Tidbits from Brian - Issue #52
My phone’s primary function is its biggest flaw. 📱 Spam calls have gotten out of control.
newsletter.brianleejackson.com
January 30, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Version 2.5.6 of our Perfmatters plugin is live!

Updated our lazy loading class to no longer add <noscript> tags. This results in a ~18% decrease in HTML code per image and a ~2% decrease in total HTML page size across the board! ⚡
January 28, 2026 at 11:52 PM
On February 26th, we're doing a deep dive into why we built a performance-first code snippet manager into Perfmatters and how you can take full advantage of it on your WordPress sites! ⚡

Shout-out to @theadminbar.com for putting this together.

theadminbar.com/events/code-...
Code Snippets Are Slowing Down Your Website - The Admin Bar
Why Perfmatters Built a Performance-First Snippet Manager
theadminbar.com
January 22, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Happy 2026 🎉, version 1.6.4 of our Novashare plugin is live!

- *New* share button for Mistral AI.
- Overhauled the meta box UI to be more consistent and improve selected image visibility. Many of you requested larger thumbnails to better reflect what will be shared on social, especially Pinterest.
January 1, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Issue #51 of my monthly newsletter "Tidbits from Brian" just went out. 📧

All I want for Christmas is pneumonia. 🎄🤒

newsletter.brianleejackson.com/p/tidbits-fr...
Tidbits from Brian - Issue #51
All I want for Christmas is pneumonia. 🎄🤒
newsletter.brianleejackson.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Version 2.5.5 of our Perfmatters plugin is live!

- New options to export code snippets (globally, individually, and bulk select) and import them to another site. 🚛
- New code snippets admin bar menu item that will show if a snippet is present.

More changes: perfmatters.io/docs/changel...
December 12, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Issue #50 of my monthly newsletter "Tidbits from Brian" just went out. It's the Black Friday edition! 📧

Living in a driverless future. 🚗

newsletter.brianleejackson.com/p/tidbits-fr...
Tidbits from Brian (Black Friday edition) - Issue #50
Living in a driverless future. 🚗
newsletter.brianleejackson.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:18 PM
You can now create and manage PHP, JS, CSS, and HTML code snippets from inside Perfmatters! We store and load code snippets using a flat-file method and directly integrate with all of our existing optimization options for the best performance. ⚡

See more here: perfmatters.io/docs/code-sn...
November 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Our annual Black Friday sale on Perfmatters and Novashare is live! 🔥

Get 30% off new licenses as well as upgrades through December 2nd. Discount code: BLACKFRIDAY

Make sure to also check out some of the other awesome deals we rounded up.

woorkup.com/black-friday/
Black Friday sale - Grab 30% off Perfmatters, Novashare (+ other deals)
We're running a Black Friday sale on our Perfmatters and Novashare plugins through December 2nd. Grab 30% off today!
woorkup.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Had a great chat with Lawrence on the WPBakery team! 🎙️

Some topics we discussed:
- Content marketing and branding/visibility.
- Is affiliate marketing more important now than ever?
- How AI is shifting/changing the market.

wpbakery.com/blog/excerpt...
Excerpt Talks Episode #4 - Brian Jackson of Perfmatters
Lawrence Ladomery interviews Brian Jackson of Forge Media on content-driven growth, brand building in the AI era, and the future of WordPress.
wpbakery.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Issue #49 of my monthly newsletter "Tidbits from Brian" just went out. 📧

The fragility of the internet. 💥 Not everything needs to be smart.

newsletter.brianleejackson.com/p/tidbits-fr...
Tidbits from Brian - Issue #49
The fragility of the internet. 💥 Not everything needs to be smart.
newsletter.brianleejackson.com
October 29, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Version 2.5.2 of our Perfmatters plugin is live!

- *New* perfmatters_rucss_inline_stylesheets filter. This allows you to inline any stylesheet already excluded from used CSS. ⚡
- Reworked the Script Manager input change event listener for better compatibility with other JS running.
October 24, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Version 1.6.3 of our Novashare plugin is live!

- *New* AI share buttons for Claude and Google AI, which link to a prompt that will summarize the shared post’s content. 🤖
- *New* novashare_ai_network_text filter. Allows you to adjust the text that is passed through to an AI network prompt.
October 22, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Issue #48 of my monthly newsletter "Tidbits from Brian" just went out. 📧

I finally made AI my default search engine. 🤖

newsletter.brianleejackson.com/p/tidbits-fr...
Tidbits from Brian - Issue #48
I finally made AI my default search engine. 🤖
newsletter.brianleejackson.com
September 30, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Version 2.5.1 of our Perfmatters plugin is live!

- Added a fetchpriority high attribute on critically preloaded image tags to match the preload link attribute. This resolves a PSI warning in certain instances. ⚡
- Added built-in stylesheet exclusion for the GeneratePress offside menu.
September 30, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Issue #47 of my monthly newsletter "Tidbits from Brian" just went out. 📧

The healthcare system in the US is a joke. 🏥

brianleejackson.substack.com/p/tidbits-fr...
August 29, 2025 at 6:09 PM
When folks ask me if they should use WordPress or another platform for their business... 🙃
August 29, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Version 2.5.0 of our Perfmatters plugin is live!

A quick update for the WP-CLI folks. 😄

- *New* WP-CLI subcommands: clear-minified-js, clear-minified-css, and clear-local-fonts. 👨‍💻
- Added support for targeting header element when using parent selector matching functions. (1/3)
August 27, 2025 at 4:50 AM
The new Gemini 2.5 Flash AI model is fun to play with. 😂
August 27, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Version 1.6.2 of our Novashare plugin is live!

- *New* AI share buttons for ChatGPT, Grok, and Perplexity, which link to a prompt that will summarize the shared post’s content. 🤖
- *New* follow button for Nextdoor.
- Updated Nextdoor brand colors. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 (1/3)
August 26, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Enjoyed this sitdown with WPLegends! We talk work-life balance, WordPress plugins, SEO landscape, and even Netflix recommendations. 😄

www.youtube.com/watch?v=URQ6...
Brian Jackson on Perfmatters, Novashare & Growing ForgeMedia | Ep. 23
YouTube video by Seahawk Media
www.youtube.com
August 18, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Version 2.4.8 of our Perfmatters plugin is live!

- Added built-in stylesheet exclusion for Bricks layer stylesheets.
- Adjusted emoji_svg_url filter to only return false outside the admin dashboard.
- Updated early hint attribute check to include sizes and media attributes. ⚡ (1/3)
August 12, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Issue #46 of my monthly newsletter "Tidbits from Brian" just went out. 📧

Finding the perfect mouse. 🖱️

newsletter.brianleejackson.com/p/tidbits-fr...
Tidbits from Brian - Issue #46
The hunt for the perfect mouse. 🖱️
newsletter.brianleejackson.com
July 30, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Version 2.4.7 of our Perfmatters plugin is live!

- *New* support to set the Perfmatters license key via wp-config.php using the PERFMATTERS_LICENSE_KEY constant. 🔑 This has been highly requested from our agency clients.
- *New* perfmatters_fetch_priority filter. (1/4)
July 16, 2025 at 5:55 PM