I have been fortunate enough over the years to have had many different roles at various WordCamps. I have been a speaker at WordCamps such as Victoria BC and Boston, a sponsor while in my role as a Product Manager for a major Canadian telco, and an organizer for several WordCamps in Toronto. So I think it’s fair to say that I have a unique perspective on the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to WordCamps. In this article, however, I’d like to talk about my experiences as an organizer. Organizing a WordCamp The most important person you will meet in your journey as […]
Highlights from WordCamp San Francisco 2014
Over the weekend, more than a thousand WordPress developers, professionals, and enthusiasts came together to attend the much-anticipated WordCamp San Francisco. The WordPress-centric event kicked off to a somewhat alarming start. . . Literally, the early morning talks were interrupted by a fire alarm, which resulted in some impromptu socializing on the sidewalks. The rest of the weekend unfolded quite perfectly, with a jam-packed venue, an exciting afterparty, and lots and lots of swag. Seriously though, I went home with 12 t-shirts. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from WCSF14! WordPress Global Many of the sessions at […]
How to Add Social Proof to a WordPress Website
Human beings are social animals. We care deeply about our standing in our community, and we try to avoid alienating ourselves by doing the wrong thing at all cost; as such, we observe the people around us for clues to what is expected of us, and we use the results of these observations as the basis of our own actions. This is a concept known as social proof. Social proof is not just limited to the real world. It also exists online, even when the people we are following are strangers, or even anonymous — although the actions of people […]
Conductor: A Modular Layout Builder for WordPress
In the wide, wide world of WordPress page builders, Conductor sure sticks out. It doesn’t integrate with your post editor or offer you limitless layout options. Instead, it focuses on helping you create excellent layouts for your pages and archives in (and I mean this) a matter of minutes, using a few clever tools. Matt Medieros of Slocum Studio, the creator of Conductor, sat down with me and walked me through Conductor’s functionality. Then he let me play with it on my own site. The tl;dr, Conductor is a keeper. What’s Conductor? Conductor is a layout builder plugin that integrates […]
The Ultimate Guide to Using Pop Ups with WordPress
If you want to build a successful website, user experience is fundamental. As well as great content, you need eye-catching web design and a site that works properly — including quick load times. However, there is one aspect of web design that flies in the face of this conventional user-experience-driven approach: pop ups. Despite a near-unanimous agreement that pop ups are detrimental to user experience, many popular sites continue to use them. Why? Well, the answer is obvious: Money. Pop ups are a proven way to increase a website’s subscriber rates, and therefore its bottom line. For some, everything else is […]
The Beginner’s Guide to Akismet
When you first install WordPress, you’ll find that you already have two plugins installed: Akismet and Hello Dolly. Hello Dolly — a fun and rather lyrical plugin developed by WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg — displays random lyrics from the song ‘Hello Dolly’ in the upper, righthand corner of your dashboard (see image below). And that’s all it does. For you budding plugin developers, however, this is a good plugin to study in regards to proper form and WordPress quality code. In this article we’re not going to focus on Hello Dolly, but rather we are going to discuss the ins-and-outs of Akismet. […]
Interview with Chris Lema on Thinking Strategically
Starting and growing a successful business requires focus, hard work, and a great deal of industry knowledge. Understanding how to select and appeal to a target market, increase efficiency, and grow revenue are just a few of the important facets that should be considered. To bridge this knowledge gap, hiring a third-party consultant to improve your company’s business strategy is a great option. For some strategic insight into business development we reached out to Chris Lema — CTO & Chief Strategist Crowdfavorite and speaker, coach, and daily blogger. Q: How did you start? A: From 1997 until 2006 I worked in five software startups in San Francisco. I […]
Is It Time for More Niche WordCamps?
One very useful thing I’ve come to understand about attending a WordCamp is the need to specialize, to find my niche. This is something that’s been emphasized time and time again at WordCamp sessions. Taking that excellent advice is a part of the reason that, when I go to a WordCamp, I attend very few talks, as very few of them apply to me. Of course, I’ve also learned that there is more to a WordCamp than just attending talks. The last WordCamp I went to, WordCamp DFW, I only went to one talk besides the keynote — an incredible speech by […]
Managing Your Front-End Build Process in WordPress
In a lot of ways, I’m a front-end developer who happens to work with WordPress. I’m far from an expert on the back-end, but I know my way around. My guess is there are lot of developers out there like me. HTML, CSS and JavaScript coders that come to WordPress because it’s easy to use. But front-end web technology moves very quickly, and you probably have a build process of your own. As you move along integrating this workflow with WordPress, there are a few things to look out for. Coding up Themes I wrote a whole article on how […]
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 […]

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