Newfold Digital

WP Engine Accuses Automattic of Royalty Scheme Against Competitors

WP Engine filed an amended complaint in its ongoing lawsuit with Automattic and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, alleging new facts revealed during discovery. The filing claims Mullenweg sought to impose an 8% royalty on WP Engine’s monthly gross revenues for use of the WordPress trademark, and that Automattic planned similar royalty demands against about 10 other hosting companies. WP Engine also alleges Mullenweg attempted to pressure payment processor Stripe to cancel WP Engine’s contract and points to internal Automattic communications using aggressive language toward the host. The suit, originally filed in October 2024, has been amended after previously sealed materials were unredacted. Automattic responded that the filing repackages old allegations and that many central claims have already been dismissed by the court.

Musician's Election Site Drives Millions via Google

Johannes Eva, a 39-year-old orchestral violist from near Nuremberg, operates a set of German election information websites (notably bundestagswahl-2021.de) that repeatedly rank highly in Google search for terms like "bundestagswahl 2021". His earlier site accumulated about 13 million pageviews around the 2017 election; he expects the 2021 site to reach ~15 million. Eva runs simple WordPress sites (uses Yoast, monitors rankings with SERP Mojo), claims not to perform active linkbuilding yet has amassed over 6,000 backlinks, and monetises traffic with Google AdSense and Google Marketing Platform (estimated lifetime ad revenue €20k–30k). Content creation (including paid freelance work) and early domain ownership are described as key drivers of his organic visibility. SEO experts cite this pattern—keyword domains, early content and slow accumulation of authority—as a repeatable tactic that can outperform official or large-media pages for event-related searches.