Podcast appearances and mentions of edd bookings

The episode is sponsored by Plesk and Freemius. I have been following Matt Medeiros' work for a few years through Twitter, Youtube, podcasts and so on. Recently I got in touch with Matt and purchased one of his services, User Feedback Videos, for our WP RSS Aggregator plugin. I loved his take on things and we got talking from there. Matt accepted my invite to the Mastermind.FM podcast without any hesitation and we were on Skype just a few days later. To me this was a bit surreal as I was used to watching videos of Matt for so long. In fact, at one point in the recording you may notice I seem a bit lost... that's just because I thought I was watching a video while Matt was explaining something. It then clicked that this was a call and I had to speak, so on we went. This episode focuses around the topic of managing multiple projects at different stages. Matt has been involved in many areas of the WordPress space, even having a background as a car salesman, so he has been juggling multiple jobs and projects throughout the years. At the moment he works as an Account Executive with Pagely while doing a number of other stuff, including User Feedback Videos and hosting the Matt Report podcast. I've taken on a more managerial role in the past couple of years, even more so now as the CEO of the team behind WP Mayor, WP RSS Aggregator and EDD Bookings. Recently we also made some changes to our team, so figuring out what to focus on at what time (and why) remains a major task. In our call, Matt and I discuss some of the pain points one could face in such a situation, how to approach them, and how to overcome them. Listen to the full episode to learn more and understand why even the most experienced minds and the best teams sometimes struggle in these areas. Enjoy the show! Mark Links: Twitter: @mattmedeiros Podcast: The Matt Report Matt's stuff on the web: CraftedByMatt.com

The episode is sponsored by Plesk and Freemius. This week I welcomed back Jean Galea to the podcast as we found some time to discuss the plugins we're using at the moment, and why we chose them. Although Jean and I work together, we rarely find the time to have discussions such as these since we tend to focus on different projects, so this was an opportunity to see what each of us was doing. At the same time, we're hoping to give you a better idea of how we run our websites and perhaps point out some plugins you weren't aware of before. Throughout our discussion we focus on plugins and a few SAAS tools that have integrations with WordPress. Since the WordPress sites that we run are focused around either content (WP Mayor) or e-commerce (WP RSS Aggregator, EDD Bookings), our choice of plugins is also centred around these markets. Even if your sites are not focused around heavy content or e-commerce specifically, there are some great little nuggets in there for you. I won't list down all the plugins we use here, but here is a quick overview of the main ones we have used on all or most of our sites over the years.  Content & Subscriber Management Nelio Content to manage our posts more easily Replyable to be able to reply to post comments through email, without having to log in to the dashboard Akismet or Anti-Spam to prevent spam comments from, well, spamming your site MailPoet to send out newsletters and to reach out to subscribers Optin Monster to run various campaigns on our sites to attract subscribers SEO Framework or Yoast SEO to ensure that our content is as optimized as possible Forms Ninja Forms as our main go-to plugin, having been introduced to it by James Laws, the other founder of this podcast Gravity Forms is an established solution we used before and still do on some sites E-Commerce & Marketing Easy Digital Downloads and its extensions WooCommerce and its extensions Official extensions Trusted 3rd-party WooCommerce extension stores Analytics Monster Insights, a great tool from Syed Balkhi Hotjar Connecticator to connect to the Hotjar service for heatmaps, site visitor recordings, polls and more Social Media SNAP by NextScripts Affiliate Management AffiliateWP to run our affiliate programs on-site Thirsty Affiliates to store affiliate links from other programs and cloak them Impact and Shareasale as alternative ways to run an affiliate program when you need a more professional solution Backups & Security BlogVault to manage our site security and backups in a simple and reliable way ManageWP to manage multiple sites from one dashboard, including running updates WP Security Audit Log to track how multiple users are using our websites, which is especially useful when you have multiple authors or editors Others Advanced Custom Fields to be able to customise our websites with custom fields where we need them Elementor as our page builder of choice when we need to create a quick website for which a default theme won't do the job Classic Editor; given that we are unsure of what Gutenberg will bring with it in WordPress 5.0, this is a safety net of sorts PerfMatters, probably the most important of all, to control on which pages certain plugins run, which is essential if you have certain functionality that you only need on a few pages (giving you better performance site-wide) We mention a few more plugins throughout the show that meet certain other needs, so be sure to listen in and learn more. Are there any other plugins which you use religiously on your WordPress sites? Let us know in the comments to give them the exposure they deserve.

This episode is sponsored by Plesk and EDD Bookings. In this episode, Jean and Mark were joined by Michiel Heijmans, the COO of Yoast and an all-around great guy, to discuss conversion optimization and a lot more. Michiel is much more than just a COO of one of the most well-known WordPress plugins around. He has been a part of the Yoast team from its infancy. In the years that have passed, he has contributed in many ways to its massive growth, especially through a focus on conversion optimization. In our discussion with Michiel, we found out a bit more about Yoast as a company, their love for Lego, his experience in growing with Yoast, as well as what he and the Yoast team do to keep expanding and improving on their offerings. One of the topics we covered was content writing and optimizing your blog. We looked into how to make sure your blog performs well, both for search engines and your readers' experience. For instance, Yoast.com's blog is categorized into a number of topics. Their team gave a lot of importance to the organization and presentation of these categories. Michiel tells us about how and why they did this, and what else they do. We also cover a number of other subjects, including speed optimization tools, analysis tools, multilingual content, and more. Listen on to hear about the best methods and tools to use to optimize your site's conversion rate. On a side note, Yoast is well-known for their illustrations throughout all their products and services. Not to be outdone, Michiel does a little sketching of his own. Check out his impressive works on Instagram. Links: Michiel's Twitter: @michielheijmans Yoast's Twitter: @yoast Website: yoast.com

Mark Zahra, among other things, recently released the EDD Bookings plugin for Easy Digital Downloads.  I was excited to talk to him about this because it’s something that I thought of doing myself back when I was teaching multiple classes at the University of Scranton. When I was on campus to help manage a fluid schedule for […] The post Mark Zahra and EDD Bookings appeared first on How I Built It.

As we ourselves approach the launch of a new version of the EDD Bookings plugin, we have invited Pippin Williamson to discuss the why, when and how of re-building an existing plugin. For those that are new to WordPress, Pippin is the man behind the Easy Digital Downloads, AffilaiteWP and Restrict Content Pro WordPress plugins. In this episode, we delve into the all-new Easy Digital Downloads 3.0 which is being built right now. EDD has been around for years, growing from a small plugin built by Pippin himself into a team of 15, including developers, support staff, content writers and more. As you would expect, when you're not building a product to scale in the future, you're going to make some mistakes. This is what happened with EDD, and it's what they are now trying to fix with 3.0. Listen to why EDD made the decision to rewrite most of the plugin, how they, and Pippin himself, are approaching the situation, and what the impact of these improvements will (or should) be. Links: Easy Digital Downloads Pippin's website Twitter: @eddwp Website: easydigitaldownloads.com Blog post: Easy Digital Downloads 3.0 Development Update EDD Bookings Twitter: @eddbookings Website: eddbookings.com Blog post: Building a Painkiller for the Appointment Bookings Space in WordPress Books Street Smarts - Norm Brodsky Small Giants - Bo Burlingham Start with Why - Simon Sinek

In this episode of Press This we're chatting with Mark Zahra of EDD Bookings WP Mayor about the lessons he's learned planning a major release of his plugin EDD Bookings. If you've ever thought about making a WordPress plugin, this episode contains useful insights learned from success and failures in maintaining and improving a WordPress plugin. If you've built a WordPress plugin already, listen to this episode for a chance to learn from someone else going through the same things you are. Listen now!

In this episode of Press This we're chatting with Mark Zahra of EDD Bookings WP Mayor about the lessons he's learned planning a major release of his plugin EDD Bookings. If you've ever thought about making a WordPress plugin, this episode contains useful insights learned from success and failures in maintaining and improving a WordPress plugin. If you've built a WordPress plugin already, listen to this episode for a chance to learn from someone else going through the same things you are. Listen now!

In this episode, Mark Zahra from WP Mayor, WP RSS Aggregator and EDD Bookings continues his foray into podcasting through a long discussion with Joe Casabona. Joe Casabona has been around WordPress for many years, starting off like many of us building small WordPress sites, to now coaching and teaching others about WordPress and how to run a business around it. Mark got in touch with Joe recently in the Post Status slack community and through their conversations, he learnt about how Joe transitioned from working for Crowd Favorite while working side-jobs as a freelancer to freelancing full-time in various, less-discussed areas of WordPress. The call lasted almost an hour and a half. That's why we have split the episode into two parts. In part one Mark and Joe discuss Joe's background, the struggles he faced and benefits he got in transitioning to freelance, as well as his popular podcast, How I Built It, and what he has learnt from the interviews. Given that the podcast has surpassed 67 episodes now, we hear Joe's thoughts on WordPress businesses as well as development. The two then delve into the shifts that have been happening in the way products are built, the ways they are marketed, and the problems being faced by product owners today within the WordPress community. The discussion finally turns to hosting a podcast and how this can be made into a business of its own. Similarly to Mastermind FM, Joe's podcast began as a mastermind with other individuals and grew from there. Part two, which will be coming in a couple of weeks, will discuss other projects that Joe has undertaken - a WordPress Business Coaching Program as well as Creator Courses. Sign up below to get notified when it's published. Show Notes: Website: casabona.org Twitter: @jcasabona Post Status Crowd Favorite Chris Lema Karim Marucchi How I Built It Podcast Episodes mentioned: Joost de Valk (Yoast SEO) Pippin Williamson (Easy Digital Downloads and Restrict Content Pro) Daniel Bachhuber Jason Coleman (Paid Memberships Pro) GiveWP Tools mentioned: ConvertKit Facebook Pixel Google Analytics

Mark Zahra takes over for the first episode of 2018 to discuss a topic he has grown passionate for; customer service. Having been involved in support for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin for around 3 years, growing from a support engineer to head of support, and now being part of the team preparing the EDD Bookings plugin for its re-launch, Mark strives to improve the customer service their team provides. As part of his research, he came across a Facebook live video hosted by HelpScout CEO Nick Francis, in which Nick interviews Customer Service expert Shep Hyken. After getting in touch with the two, Mark reached out to Shep who agreed to be a part of this Mastermind.FM episode. Shep gives us a brief overview of his background and what led him to becoming a customer service and experience expert, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author, as well as being inducted into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in the speaking profession. Mark goes on to ask Shep a number of questions regarding how support differs between large companies such as Amazon and the smaller teams in the WordPress eco-system. This leads to a discussion about the words "satisfied" and "fine", and how these are not words you want to hear as the individual providing support. The discussion then turns onto customer loyalty, first and last impressions, and how you should be handling upset or irate customers. For anyone that has provided any form of customer service, you would know that these situations are inevitable, so knowing how to deal with them is of utmost importance. Last but not least, Mark and Shep discuss a few tools that can be used for customer service, from chat to social media. Shep goes as far as to discourage the use of a ticketing system, which is something that is widespread in the world of WordPress plugins and themes. Can this change in the future with the introduction of other tools such as live chat and chatbots? There are also a couple of fun, short stories from Shep's experiences thrown in there that we're sure you'll love. If you don't, well then, customer service isn't for you. Shep Hyken is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. Featured on the show: Shep Hyken's website (Shepard Presentations) The Customer Focus Twitter: @Hyken Facebook: Shep Hyken - Speaker LinkedIn: Shep Hyken Youtube Channel: Shep Hyken Google+: Shep Hyken HelpScout Facebook Live Video - Nick Francis & Shep Hyken We Made Support a Priority, and It Paid Off - Mark Zahra HelpU, by HelpScout Bonus: Shep Hyken's taxi cab story

This episode is hosted by Mark Zahra of WP RSS Aggregator and EDD Bookings, who talks with Marius Vetrivi of WPRiders. Marius is an entrepreneur who has worked his way from being a solo freelancer to running his own WordPress agency that currently has 6 full-time employees. The two discuss Marius' background as well as that of his business, WPRiders, before going on to discuss various aspects of running a business. The discussion starts off with how to transition from being a freelancer to running an agency and what Marius learnt from it. The two then go on to discuss hiring; knowing when is the right time to expand and in what areas, how to find the right person for the job and for your team, and making sure the company's culture is maintained throughout. Marius also shares some details about what WPRiders does and how it does it, from complete site development to smaller projects with plugin and theme customisations, among others. Lastly, Mark asks Marius what he does in his personal time to unwind and how he manages to cut off from the business side of his life, and he gives some valuable answers. Be sure to stick around until the end to hear Marius' advice for those looking to get into freelancing as well as those looking to expand into an agency. Links: @mariusvetrici | Twitter Marius Vetrici | LinkedIn WPRiders Codeable Susy Toolkit Vipassana Meditation 12: The Elements of Great Managing | Book

Welcome to Episode 30 of Mastermind.fm! Jean is with us as always, and we welcome James back this week after a 2 episode break. Today Jean and James will tackle some updates on what is happening in the WordPress community, a bit of business related talk, and what James has been up to for the last couple weeks. Join us now for this week's Mastermind.fm! Talking Business If you've been with us for the last couple weeks, you've noticed that James hasn't been. He's been off monitoring the launch of the newest iteration of Ninja Forms, Ninja Forms THREE. It was a massive overhaul, a complete rewriting of the codebase, and required his hands-on attention during the launch period. Welcome back, James! On Jean's end of things, he's just released a major update to the EDD Bookings extension, adding compatibility to Easy Digital Downloads' own Front End Submissions extension. Both Jean and James give their take on the Apple Conference. Listen in to hear what they think! WordPress News GoDaddy Acquisition of ManageWP The buzz around the WordPress community right now is the GoDaddy purchase of Manage WP. The news has been met with a lot of mixed reviews both from people very excited about the acquisition and, on the polar opposite side, quite a bit of venom. GoDaddy of course is a major webhost that has recently broken into managed WordPress hosting. ManageWP is a smaller, focused managed WordPress hosting company. Both Jean and James see some real upside to the acquisition with modest internal reservation. Listen in to hear their thoughts and rationale, and what they feel the acquisition means for WordPress! Headway Themes News has been buzzing out of Headway Themes in the last couple of weeks about rumors of staff not getting paid and an uncertain future. While no one is absolutely certain about the circumstances, James' take here is a lesson in clear communication. The silence out of the company is breathing life to rumors. Hear the rest of the story, and more, in the podcast! Featured on the Show: Ninja Forms THREE EDD Bookings EDD Front End Submissions GoDaddy ManageWP Headway Themes