Christmas is coming early in WordPressland this year, with WordPress 4.1 slated for release early this month. As exciting as this piece of news already is, it gets even better. The developers are putting together an extra present: A new default theme by the name of Twenty Fifteen. As most of you probably know, the release of the new default WordPress theme has been a time-honored tradition of the past five years. Starting with Twenty Ten, these themes have been a show of WordPress development best practices, state-of-the-art theme making, and great parents for child themes. So, in the spirit of children who […]
The ultimate guide to Jetpack
When it comes to WordPress plugins, we all have our favorites. It would probably take you only a few seconds to come up with at least five plugins you install on virtually every website you create. You little nerd, you! I’m no different. Among my all-time favorites is Jetpack by WordPress.com. Initially installed on one of my sites for its excellent stats and analytics feature, by now it has a fixed position on my go-to list of plugins. However, even though I use it on a regular basis, the other day I realized that my knowledge of Jetpack is not […]
What You Need to Know about Starting Your Own WordPress Business
In the 2014 State of the Word, Matt Mullenweg revealed an interesting insight from this year’s WordPress development survey: Of the people who took part in the survey, 25 percent made their living entirely through WordPress. Twenty-five freakin’ percent! Almost 7,700 people! And that is just a small sample of WordPress users. Isn’t it awesome that WordPress has evolved to the point where people can feed their families with its help? That it allows them to build a career they love and work with something that they believe in? I mean, who would have thought? Maybe you are thinking about doing the […]
Write for Readers or Search Engines? Here’s How to Do Both
Sometimes it can be challenging to keep up with how the rules of the web are changing. Remember when SEO was just a competition on who can fit a keyword on their site more often? Or when many websites suddenly found themselves blacklisted from one day to the next? Or when “content is king” became the official motto of the Internet? Good times. While the rules might be constantly in motion, one thing that has continued to be true is that content is at the core of running a successful website. Yes, other elements of online marketing (such as social media […]
Will Code for Food: How to Find Clients for WordPress Services
As a freelance developer, or a WordPress business owner, or any other person offering services for the popular platform, what is the number one factor that determines whether you will succeed or fail? A superior skill set? Knowing marketing for developers? Or perhaps a direct phone line to Matt Mullenweg? Hands down, the most important factor to be successful in building a profitable WordPress business is the ability to find and keep clients. In fact, without clients, you aren’t even in business. You are just very good at one of your hobbies. But how do you get clients, especially at the beginning stages? […]
WordPress SEO 101: Basics of Search Engine Optimization
Many websites possess a power that is usually reserved for superheroes. No, not superhuman speed, laser sight, or the ability to look good in spandex. Instead, the special ability that a large number of websites possess is the power of invisibility. What would provide us with endless opportunities in our personal lives is less than desirable in case of our web presences. Little is more frustrating than putting a lot of work into a site only to have the traffic be virtually zero because nobody can find it. The antidote (or kryptonite if you will) to this invisibility is SEO. When […]
1 Billion Additional Customers: Optimize Your Site for China’s Online Market
China has been on the news a lot in the last years. The growth of its economy is leaving people in disbelief. It seems like not even a month goes by without some superlative-spouting news about the People’s Republic. Not just since Alibaba, the China-based e-commerce giant, landed the biggest IPO in history is the world looking toward Asia’s powerhouse and its growing industry and service sector. Yet with all the news and commotion, China’s online market is still a bit of a Pandora’s box for most internet marketers. Very few people dare to venture there for lack of available […]
Best WordPress Plugins for Mobile Optimization
Have you been on a date/night out with friends/any social gathering lately? Let me make a bold prediction: At some point, the conversation you were having ceased because the other party was staring onto their cellphone to check Emails, Facebook or “quickly look something up on the web.” If it wasn’t the other person, it was probably you. So am I psychic? No. It’s merely the times we are living in. Cellphones and other mobile devices have become an integral part of our lives. I mean, have you seen the line for the new iPhones? Whether this development is good […]
10 Skills All WordPress Developers Should Have
23% of the internet? That can’t be right. That’s gotta be millions of websites. How come I have never heard of it then? She must be lying. Nothing can be that important and slip me by completely. This WordPress thingy must be more like a hobby. That can’t be a real job. For those who have no idea what WordPress is, being a WordPress developer must sound like a made-up job. Web designer, yes. They can sort of understand that. After all, websites have to come from somewhere, right? But WordPress developer, on the other hand, most people have never […]
Marketing Advice for Developers: How to Get Paid for Your Plugins and Themes
“Really?! Eight downloads? I have been sleep deprived for three months for that? I missed my daughter’s middle-school play for eight freakin’ downloads? Eight!?” Creating a product can be a disappointment. You pour your heart and soul into something for months, cut all the time from working with clients that you can, neglect your day job to the point that you are not sure if they won’t fire you, and isolate yourself to the point that your family starts referring to you as “the other person living here.” Until finally, it’s done. The thing you have been working on is […]
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