We’re in the midsts of a revolution. The companies, entrepreneurs, and freelancers who are winning are the ones who deliver exceptional support, service, and experiences. Just look at Uber. They were able to dominate the taxi industry by making it easier, cheaper, and faster to get around town… and being friendlier than most taxi drivers. The same is happening in the freelance industry. Many of my clients came to me because their previous developers delivered horrible support. I recently started a business that is all about delivering support, and I make sure we deliver exceptional customer service across the entire […]

Freelancing can be incredibly rewarding. You have the freedom to choose which projects you work on, where you work from, and can create your own work schedule. At the same time, it requires persistence, the ability to do multiple jobs at the same time, and work long, irregular hours. As you know already, there are times when freelancing can be unimaginably stressful. And because of the isolative nature of freelancing, it’s very easy to fall into a pit of depression. No one wants that, though. So today, I’m going to share with you, from one freelancer to another, the tips […]

I’m not going to sugar coat this. Getting your first clients as a freelancer is tough! You’re stuck in a Catch-22. People don’t want to hire you because you don’t have any previous clients. But you don’t have any previous clients because no one has hired you yet. So what are you supposed to do? About a year out of college, I was presented with this exact situation. I had 0 clients, 0 industry contacts, and 0 websites in my portfolio. Yet, I was able to build a freelancing business that grew to a couple hundred clients and allowed me […]

Do you ever feel overworked and underpaid as a freelancer or business owner? I know I have. For many, the primary cause is thinking about your business in the short term rather than the long term. Think about a freelancer who takes smaller, quick paying jobs today instead of leaving time to improve their business so they can get bigger jobs later. It becomes almost like a cycle: they can’t get out of those small paying jobs that just barely pay the bills. To break this cycle, you need to start thinking of your business in the long term. Instead […]

When it comes to WordPress, security is no joke. Like any web software, WordPress can be vulnerable to many attacks. To help keep your site secure, you’ve probably instituted best practices, probably with the help of a plugin like iThemes Security. However, when it comes to website security, the biggest weakness is really us—the users. Just take a look at this story from Wired. Mat Honan, the article’s author, was hacked not through some technologically genius software. Instead, the hacker simply called up tech support numbers and was able to extract info from the support agent about Mat. The hacker then […]

Are you interested in creating a WordPress plugin? This article is all about how I learned to build my first plugin. My hope is that it will inspire you to create your own and provide the necessary resources to learn how. So, why did I decide to create a publicly available plugin? There were a number of reasons: I wanted to improve my skills as a developer, give back to the WordPress community, and challenge myself. But the primary event that kicked off this whole endeavor was when a client came to me asking, “Is there a plugin that will […]

The day is finally here. The WordPress.org plugin directory has officially passed one billion plugin downloads. That’s pretty crazy considering just a little over a year ago, there were only 700 million downloads. A third of all plugin downloads occurred in just this last year! I mean, it’s no wonder, considering WordPress powers almost a quarter of the Internet. But when I see stats like this, I always ask one question: Why? Why did we see this huge growth in WordPress? And why are there so many plugin downloads? Where Did All These Plugin Downloads Come From? Before jumping into […]

As a WordPress freelancer, there is much we can learn from those who sell coffee. Just think about the various ways you can buy coffee: You can buy coffee beans from your local supermarket to brew your own coffee for about $.10 a cup. Or, you could go to a convenience store and buy a cup for about $1. Or, you can go to Starbucks and spend $3 (or probably even more). No matter which option you choose, you end up with the same product: a cup of coffee (yes, coffee aficionados will say there are differences in the quality, […]