Show Notes
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Chris Lema started using WordPress in 2005 because of how user-friendly it is for customers. He’s still active in the WordPress community—consulting with different companies to help them think through strategy. Chris attends about 6 WordCamps a year, in addition to starting his own WordPress events. One such event is in Cabo, where folks can spend time relaxing in villas while talking shop about WordPress. He is also the creator of WPwatercooler, one of the more popular WordPress weekly shows.
You can contact Chris on Twitter @chrislema, or on his website.
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In the last few months we’ve seen several WordPress theme and plugin companies celebrate their fifth birthday. On the one hand that’s huge—making enough money to last past your fifth birthday is, in it’s own right, success for any startup.
On the other hand, it highlights how young this space is. And I’m not sure any single company I know of is doing things (from a business perspective) exactly how they were doing it five years ago. Success for them has come from trial and error learning.
With WordPress powering 17% of the web I can guarantee you three things: 1) more people are going to declare they’re a WordPress shop, 2) more companies are going to do it all wrong and hurt our overall brand, and 3) serious players will be better able to differentiate than ever before.
Should the spoils of this dynamic only go to the companies whose names we all know? Or should we be doing something for the new entrepreneurs in our midst? If we’re generous with sharing code, coding tips, and best practices on theme design, is there any reason business strategy and tactics, along with lessons learned should be hidden from people? I think not.
I love the blog post one developer wrote, as he shared his insights on moving from developer to marketer, but we’re five years in. We should have tons of these articles, not a few.
That’s why I think it’s critical that we expand our notion of what WordCamps do, so that we can have business tracks at each one and invest in new entrepreneurs. Additionally, now that we have more help on WordPress.tv, people who can’t get to a WordCamp can watch from their own computers.
Freelancers, small business owners, aspiring theme and plugin developers – we should be investing in them to help them wherever they are. Help them learn pricing. Help them learn contracts. Help them deliver “on brand” experiences that will outweigh the negative dynamics of new market entrants.
I’m Chris Lema, and the DradCast starts now!
Sippin’ On
Dre-Dos Equis
Brad-Grub Soda
Chris-Malibu and Diet
Pressing Topics
Thomas Giffen made his way from a WordPress developer to a marketer.
The true value of a WordPress theme
Hermes Theme costs $200, but provides so much more in value to your business.
PressNomics 2.0 Call for Speaker
Pressnomics is about the business of WordPress. Go online to nominate/suggest a speaker online.
Alex King talks about the Maturity of WordPress.
Sucuri and CloudProxy
To continue building on their consumer focused website security suite, Sucuri has launched a preventive service named CloudProxy.
CloudProxy offers a Cloud based Web Application Firewall, virtual website patching, malicious traffic filtering, and more.
These features allow CloudProxy to automatically stop attacks on your site before they affect your files and visitors increasing your overall security posture. One of the great side effects of using CloudProxy is improved performance to your site.
If you’re looking to become more proactive in your website security practices and want to increase your site performance, email Sucuri at [email protected] for more info about CloudProxy.
Bar Tricks
Dre
Sucuri is hiring a PHP developer.
Chris
Marketing automation at orbtr. Changing the way your small business looks at leads.
Upcoming Events
WordCamp San Diego – March 23-24
WordSesh – DradCast and Tony presenting
WordCamp Miami – April 5 -7
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