WordPress 5.0 brought Gutenberg — the new block-based editor. Opinions were split. Some people hated it. I saw an opportunity.
The gap in Gutenberg
The default blocks that shipped with Gutenberg were fine for basic content. But if you were a blogger or content marketer, you were missing a lot: table of contents, review boxes, testimonials, content toggles, call-to-action buttons, star ratings. The kinds of things that make blog posts actually convert.
You either had to go back to shortcodes (defeating the purpose of blocks) or install five different plugins for five different features.
Building Ultimate Blocks
I started building Ultimate Blocks — a single plugin that bundles all the essential blocks a blogger needs. The first version launched with about 8 blocks:
- Table of Contents — auto-generated from headings
- Review Box with schema markup for rich snippets
- Content Toggle (accordion) for FAQs
- Testimonial Block with author photos
- Click to Tweet for social sharing
- Countdown Timer for urgency
- Social Share buttons
- Star Rating block
Why one plugin instead of many
I could have shipped each block as a separate plugin and padded my wordpress.org profile. But from a user's perspective, that's terrible. Nobody wants to manage 8 plugins when one will do. I also wanted fine-grained control — you can enable/disable individual blocks so you only load what you use.
Early traction
Within the first month, Ultimate Blocks crossed 1,000 active installs. The WordPress community was hungry for Gutenberg blocks that actually solved real problems. Most of the early growth came from the wordpress.org search results and a few blog posts from WordPress reviewers.
The reviews were overwhelmingly positive. People kept saying the same thing: "Finally, Gutenberg blocks that are actually useful."
What I learned
Building for a platform shift is the best time to ship. When WordPress moved to Gutenberg, there was a temporary vacuum — established plugins hadn't adapted yet, and the new editor was missing obvious features. That window doesn't stay open forever, but if you ship fast, you can establish yourself before the big players catch up.
Check out Ultimate Blocks — it's now at 25+ blocks and growing.