Podcasts about wordpress developer

Krista Miller is a virtual summit strategist committed to helping online business owners skyrocket their signature offer sales by hosting highly-profitable summits that blow industry standards out of the water. Today, she's here to tell us what actually works when it comes to online summits. Krista is also a recent member of Get Paid Marketing and gets into the details on revenue numbers, conversion rates, and what has happened for her since making some key messaging shifts + running Facebook ads with us. Heads up: Enrollment for Get Paid Marketing is coming up on December 5th. If you're not already on the waitlist, I highly recommend you go check it out clairepells.com/waitlist.  This Week on the Get Paid Podcast: Going from Wordpress Developer to launching a completely different, profitable business model with Summit in a Box Why some summits are a flop when others work extremely well  Why people were basically begging Krista to teach her approach to summits Working affiliates into your marketing plan How Krista and her team got evergreen to work better for her than regular live launches The key messaging shifts they made while in Get Paid Marketing that attracted the types of clients Krista wanted to work with most What ads have been doing for their business since Get Paid Marketing A dive into Krista's revenue numbers, team costs, and overall profit Mentioned in this podcast: Summit in a Box: https://www.summitinabox.co/  Get Your Curated Playlist Of Summit-Hosting Secrets: https://www.summitinabox.co/playlist  Get Paid Marketing Waitlist: https://clairepells.com/waitlist  Now it's time to GET PAID Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, visit my website for even more detailed strategies, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. Now, it's time to go get yourself paid.  

Wie würde ich meine Agentur neu gründen? Diese spannende Frage stellte mir kürzlich Dominik Liss in seinem Podcast-Interview mit mir. In diesem Ausschnitt daraus gehe ich darauf ein, wie wichtig Praxiserfahrung ist, wie ich die ersten Kunden gewinnen würde und warum ich absolut gegen einen frühen Start von Paid Advertising bin. Ich teile meine Erfahrungen als Agenturgründer und beschreibe anhand meines Weges die Schritte, wie man schnell sechsstellige Umsätze als Freelancer, Berater oder kleine Agentur erreicht. Egal ob im Online Marketing allgemein oder speziell als SEO- oder Wordpress-Experte. Dabei verrate ich auch, wie es uns gelang, unseren Umsatz zu verdoppeln, indem wir auf Aufträge verzichtet haben. Schalte also ein, wenn Du Berater, Freelancer oder Agenturgründer bist oder werden willst.

Cameron Jones said about his work and answered some of my questions. more info- https://www.SmartCherrysThoughts.com

March 28th was supposed to mark the release of WordPress 6.2. But a date formatting bug has delayed release for a day. The new target is Wednesday, March 29 at 1pm EST.The issue could potentially impact core features like date-based permalinks. But it might also negatively affect other functionality that relies on the correct date – think event bookings and eCommerce transactions. Over at WP Tavern, Sarah Gooding provided a summary of the issue and the ensuing discussion it stirred among developers.When WordPress 6.2 is released, you'll find plenty of new features to experiment with. The Block and Site Editors will receive a boost with the Style Book, support for sticky blocks, and an easier to use Navigation block.For more details on WordPress 6.2, check out the official Field Guide, and a handy reference provided by Dan Knauss over at iThemes.Links You Shouldn't MissWordPress developers are starting to implement artificial intelligence (AI) into their products and using it to write code. That has raised a few concerns. Last week, we reported on the WordPress Plugin Review Team's reminder that AI-generated code must be GPL compatible. Sarah Gooding recently dove further into the subject at WP Tavern. Even though we're in the early stages of this AI revolution, Gooding says “it's not too early to establish some best practices for using code generators.”The ever-popular Yoast SEO plugin is looking to reduce the web's carbon footprint. This week they integrated their crawl optimization feature into the free version of the plugin. The WP Minute's Eric Karkovack spoke with Yoast's Taco Verdonschot about the feature and how bot traffic negatively impacts the environment.MasterWP's Rob Howard published a look at WordPress plugin pricing over a six month period. Howard tracked a handful of popular plugins by taking daily screenshots of their pricing pages. The report shows that some plugins may be using deceptive pricing practices. For instance, stating that a product is on sale when it may have never been sold at the quoted “regular” price. Howard also shared some disagreement with The WP Minute's recent editorial regarding tactics used by development firm Awesome Motive.WordPress Developer and core contributor Nick Diego recently announced that his Block Visibility plugin is now completely free. As of version 3.0, all premium features have been merged into the free version. Be on the lookout for more coverage of this story from The WP Minute.Classifieds listings buy yoursBuddyBoss Brace yourself for an exciting update to WordPress! Big changes are coming, and you won't want to miss it. Stay tuned for the big reveal!CastAsync Too Busy to produce audiobooks, podcasts, or any audio content? With CastAsync, you can do it by spending only 5 minutes per day.From the Grab BagNow it's time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors.Gutenberg project head Matias Ventura has outlined the next phase of development: collaboration.Development firm iThemes is set for a rebrand. They recently posted a teaser video on Twitter and are set to make an announcement in the near future.The WordPress Community Team has shared highlights from its Contributor Working Group Inaugural Mentorship Chat. The group's focus is to develop a project-wide mentorship program.Looking for a new block theme to experiment with? Mike McAlister of tutorial site Ollie has released a free theme of the same name.New Members This WeekAnne-Mieke Bovelett, follow @BovelettIf you're not a member yet, go to thewpminute.com/support/ to join.Thanks to all of the members who shared these links today: Jeff ChandlerCourtney Robertson ★ Support this podcast ★

You're here, so you're probably interested in a role as a remote WordPress developer

Se ha lanzado el blog para desarrolladores WordPress, por ahora en beta, y a la espera de ampliar los contenidos poco a poco.

With the era of new no-code tools including those found in the Kadence suite of solutions, we discuss the question of what makes someone a WordPress developer. We also talk about some ways to get started in WordPress, how to set yourself up for success, and ways to stick with problems in order to really solidify your learning. We also talk about the Kadence Power User Course and the upcoming teardown event with The Good on Nov 10th. Ben, Hannah, and Kathy also share some of their thoughts on productivity techniques to get the most out of each day.

You've heard about SEO and how it can really drive traffic to your website, but you keep putting it off. SEO can seem overwhelming, overly technical, and can feel like there is too much to learn. However, SEO can actually be easy to learn and implement in your business. SEO may also be the most effective marketing tool in your toolbox, and one you can do yourself with little to no cost.  In this episode of the Sassy Strategist podcast, host Kim Dawson interviews Karen Callahan, SEO Strategist, Trainer, and WordPress Developer, who shares her tips and strategies for getting found on search engines like Google. Kim and Karen discuss blog writing and content creation for maximum SEO, the do's and don'ts of guest blogging, and whether or not it matters which website platform you choose (Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress, etc.). They geek out over SEO and you won't believe what you learn.   KEY POINTS   * Guest posting is for creating awareness, not SEO.   * You can boost SEO on your website by writing on a few topics from multiple perspectives.   * SEO tools and plugins don't do SEO for you! They simply evaluate and make recommendations.   * The copy you put “above the fold” on your website should be written with SEO in mind.   * It may be better to drive traffic to web pages other than your home page.   ABOUT THE GUEST   Karen Callahan, MSCIS, SEO Strategist and Trainer, WordPress Developer, Speaker, Founder of Adventures Online and Karen-Callahan.com   Karen Callahan is an SEO Strategist and Trainer, WordPress Developer, and Speaker with nearly 25 years' experience developing websites and 15 years applying SEO to websites. A fierce advocate for do-it-yourselfers, Karen has trained many clients on how to add SEO to their own websites. She has flipped the script on SEO and developed a unique system; a words-based SEO system (not algorithm-based) that is ideal for non-tech professionals. She focuses on the “words” because words are what the algorithm and statistics are measuring!   ABOUT THE HOST   Kim Dawson is a results-driven business strategist and an expert at turning a good business into a great one. Her clients have reached their current capacity and need to make changes in order to generate more profits and get their time back! With over 20+ years of entrepreneurship and accounting experience, Kim helps small businesses optimize their pricing and procedures while navigating niche markets and building a team without cutting into their profitability.  If you're ready to transition from day-to-day service provider to CEO, book a discovery call with Kim at https://kdawsonco.com/.

Defining the parameters of what a WordPress or WooCommerce developer is has never been cut and dry.

On the podcast today we have Milan Ivanovic. Milan is a WordPress Developer at Valet.io, and is a WordCamp volunteer, speaker, and organizer. He's the WordPress.org global translation editor, WordPress Serbia lead, and is now part of the WordCamp Europe alumni. As if that weren't enough, Milan is one of the lecturers of the WordPress Academy in Serbia, where he has given talks and WordPress Workshops. He's also a member of the Theme Review and Community Get Involved Teams. It's pretty clear to see that WordPress and WordPress events play a major role in Milan's life, and that's what this podcast is about. We talk about the importance of the WordPress community as a whole, as well as exploring what the situation is like in Milan's home country of Serbia. We also get into the subject of diversity and how Europe as a continent might face diversity challenges which differ from other parts of the world.

On the podcast today we have Milan Ivanovic. Milan is a WordPress Developer at Valet.io, and is a WordCamp volunteer, speaker, and organizer. He's the WordPress.org global translation editor, WordPress Serbia lead, and is now part of the WordCamp Europe alumni. As if that weren't enough, Milan is one of the lecturers of the WordPress Academy in Serbia, where he has given talks and WordPress Workshops. He's also a member of the Theme Review and Community Get Involved Teams. It's pretty clear to see that WordPress and WordPress events play a major role in Milan's life, and that's what this podcast is about. We're drilling down on why the community which surrounds WordPress is a key part in the success of the whole project. The recent hiatus of in-person events has meant that all the events moved online. Whilst this was a good stop gap, Milan, as you will hear, is pleased that real world events are back. We talk about the importance of the WordPress community as a whole, as well as exploring what the situation is like in Milan's home country of Serbia. We discuss how Milan got started as a community member and the different roles that events like WordCamps can offer people wishing to dip their toes in the community waters. We also get into the subject of diversity and how Europe as a continent might face diversity challenges which differ from other parts of the world. Milan is an enthusiastic speaker and I'm sure that you'll get a fresh perspective from listening to the podcast.

Ever wonder what it's like to be a WordPress developer or even how to become one? I invited one onto the podcast to share his journey and tons of great tips for aspiring developers that want to follow the same path. The best part is that he's completely self-taught! We all know how hard that path is, and he made it happen. It turns out that WordPress development has quite a bit of depth and a few different languages and frameworks you can pursue - JavaScript, ReactJS, and PHP. Also, WordPress development seems to have a more lenient barrier to entry in terms of what you need to learn initially. If you're just trying to break into tech and you enjoy coding, this episode is for you.Micah Wood (guest):Website - https://wpscholar.comTwitter - https://twitter.com/wpscholarLinkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/micahwood---------------------------------------------------

Zach Stepek, Till Kruss and Carl Alexander have a conversation on how and if you can define a WordPress developer.

I invited on a WordPress developer of 3 years to tackle an entry-level FAANG mock interview in JavaScript. Quite frankly, most people are too scared to come on to do this, so kudos to Milos for being willing to tackle these problems on video! The interviewer, Daniel, was a software engineer at Microsoft for 10 years and at Facebook for 7 years. It sounded like this type of challenge was more in line with Facebook's style, but hopefully, this gives you some insight into what challenges are like at these companies.We will be doing 3 mock interviews in total with these problems. This episode is with the first brave soul. Enjoy!Guests:Daniel Tomko - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieltomkoMilos Veljkovic - https://www.linkedin.com/in/milosveljkovic1992---------------------------------------------------

This episode of Conversations with Tech experts features Alicia St Rose, Wordpress Developer at WP with Heart. She joins the show to discuss how her commitment to community extends beyond EE. 

In this episode, Nick talks to the seller of a subscription business created in September 2015 in the business niche. Listen in to find out how the business makes an average of $3,582 per month in net profit, why the seller has decided to sell, the lessons learned from running the business, and much more.  Visit https://empireflippers.com/listing/56142/ to learn more about this business

Tom is a WordPress Developer who decided to go freelance when he was literally waiting for his first job interview. He got paid a couple of beers for his first gig but quickly started making some real money straight out of college. In this episode, you'll learn how to market yourself as a freelancer and how to set pricing. We also talk about how to build an audience on Twitter.

In this episode we discuss:How Tom got started freelancingLanding the first clientDo you need to be able to "sell yourself" to make it as a freelancer?Getting out of the "feast/famine" cycle that traps many freelancersWhat are the biggest mistakes that most people make when first starting out as freelancers?What would Tom do if he was starting over again today?Should you use marketplaces/platforms like UpWork to sell your services as a freelancer?Is it important to choose a niche? Where Tom gets virtually all of his new leads fromThe advantages of "working in public"Finding success on TwitterTom's viral Twitter thread on pricing freelance projects ( https://twitter.com/tom_hirst/status/1277933730078785537How to create additional sources of income as a freelancer (besides client work)Translating freelance expertise into creating and selling content onlineTom's new agency, Run the Show (https://twitter.com/rtsagency) that specializes in Headless WordpressWhat is "Headless Wordpress" and why would someone use it?You can find links to all of the resources we discussed and more on Tom's website here: https://www.tomhirst.com/links/

What Are The Key Skills You Need To Know To Be Effective WordPress Developer This Week Show's Sponsors Kinsta: https://kinsta.com/ LaunchFlow: https://launchflows.com/ Webinar Friday 9th of April LaunchFlows 10:30am PST "Replace ClickFunnels & Shopify Funnels & Checkouts With LaunchFlows & WooCommerce At A Faction of The Price! " https://youtu.be/aT1uNMs7nAE

On this episode of Dev Branch we're discussing how to hire a WordPress developer but really we're focusing on how to be an awesome client. Panel Jason Tucker @jasontucker Steve Zehngut @zengy Jason Cosper @boogah Show Sponsors Desktop Server – ServerPress https://serverpress.com WPsitesync – https://www.wpsitesync.com The Events Calendar is the number one calendar and event ticket plugin on WordPress for a reason – it's built by WordPress and events experts who know what it takes to succeed when events are part of your business. Whether it's a weekly virtual class or a robust event ticketing solution- The Events Calendar has you covered. Use code WPwatercooler to save 20% on a new purchase today! https://theeventscalendar.com​ Are You Looking For Brand Awareness? You could be a show sponsor. Let people know you're still in business and supporting your products. Supporting podcasts is a great way to repurpose your in-person conference budget. We have been sponsored by big brands such as Kinsta and Cloudways. Why not get your audience in front of the thousands of people who download this show every month? Yes, Dev Branch has thousands of downloads every month. We're not just a YouTube Show.

skills

Do you have a website that you are scared of editing? Do you not even have a website yet and are struggling to figure out where you should start? Do you want to hear a harrowing tale of drunken midnight manslaughter? Listen to this episode. -- Full show notes and links at https://www.modular.studio/podcast/fire-your-wordpress-developer.

This week on the show we're discussing the life of a freelance WordPress Developer. Panel: Jason Tucker @jasontucker Sé Reed @sereedmedia Russell Aaron @enqueue_russ Jason Cosper @boogah Sponsor: Desktop Server – ServerPress https://serverpress.com

In this interview I talk to Jordan Johnson of RipplePop. RipplePop is a Productize service model that may sound familiar, but it has a twist....

In this interview I talk to Jordan Johnson of RipplePop. RipplePop is a Productize service model that may sound familiar, but it has a twist....

In this interview I talk to Jordan Johnson of RipplePop. RipplePop is a Productize service model that may sound familiar, but it has a twist....

In this episode, we explore Airtable in Spanish. We are joined by Elias Gomez, from Bilbao Spain. He is a technology and Wordpress developer as well as a DJ.

Sa Sibinom Grašićem smo pričali o tome kako postati uspešan freelancer, system administrator i WordPress developer. Takođe smo pokrili teme kao što su: Kako naplatiti posao i odrediti cenu rada, kako doći do klijenata i zadržati ih, kako napraviti dobar sajt koji kida, trikovi i fore za sajt, i na kraju par reči o uspehu i hostingu. Intervju je snimljen u prostorijama hotela City Savoy (Cetinjska 3, Stari Grad, 11000 Beograd, Srbija) http://www.hotelcitysavoy.com ____________ Autori: Sagovornik: Marko Pajić Video produkcija: Aleksandar Sretković ____________ Sibin Grašić biografija Sibin Grašić je WordPress Bog, Sistem Administrator i Freelancer. Poslovnu karijeru započinje 2010. godine kao WordPress developer. Sa preko 600 završenih projekata, specijalizovao se za namenska WordPress rešenja visokih performansi. Pored WordPressa, bavi se Web Hostingom, sistem administracjiom, kao i personalizovanim cloud rešenjima. ____________ Sibin Grašić linkovi FB: https://www.facebook.com/SeeBeen IG: https://www.instagram.com/see_been/ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seebeen/ Sajt / blog: http://etfovac.com ____________ Stepenicama Uspeha Linkovi: Sajt: https://stepenicamauspeha.rs/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/stepenicamauspeha TW: https://twitter.com/SUspeha IG: https://www.instagram.com/stepenicamauspeha Pratite nas na društvenim mrežama i obavezno SUBSCRIBE! #StepenicamaUspeha #WordPress #Freelance #Hosting

This week on WPwatercooler we discuss the developer/user gap.Join us on this episode of WPwatercooler by visiting our Participant guidelines page.WPwatercooler network is sponsored by ServerPress makers of DesktopServer. Be sure to check them out at https://www.serverpress.comPanelJason Cosper, Jason Tucker, Sé Reed, Steve Zehngut See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Greg Taylor (@GRTaylor2) is a well respected WordPress Developer and Content Marketer. He’s the founder of Trinity Web Media – a company that exists as a result of his passions, creating great websites that meet client goals. “If a site looks great, but doesn’t achieve the results Trinity’s clients need, we haven’t fully done our job. Only when a site looks great, ranks well and converts — then we know our job is complete.” Residing outside Philadelphia in Oaklyn, NJ in Greg’s spare time he enjoys living a lifestyle that includes friends, family, and fitness. He’s also the host of an amazing podcast called The New Marketing Show. Check it out!Greg and I go deep on a few really important topics – specifically mental health and how the wellbeing of our minds relates to our overall happiness. We talk about the need and importance of community and how where we live isn’t as important as how vulnerable we make ourselves with the community in which we live. We had so much fun, I hope you do too. Thanks for being here. You can visit the podcast website and learn more, here. -AndrewWe discuss:Gangplank in Chandler, AZDonn FelkerThe Fish Tank Co-Work SpaceMentors like Francine HardawayAsking for help in your personal life and your businessTo be successful in life and business, you must know your valueDoes where you live have any implication on your success?Saying no more oftenNon-negotiables in life and business (and why they are vital to your happiness)

Get a free 14-day, no risk trial. No credit card required. Visit Volusion and as a special for Hack the Entrepreneur listeners, get 50% off your first month's plan with promo code HACK. My guest today is a WordPress Developer, podcaster, and a business coach. He started like a lot of us do, with lots of dreaming, thinking, and talking about working for himself and running his own online business. But also like many of us, it wasn't an easy transition. In fact, he made the first leap into freelancing and a couple years later he had to go back to working for someone else. But he thought about what had gone wrong the first time, created a plan, and headed out on his own once again. He's now been in business since 2010, and even though it hasn't always been unicorns and rainbows, he's persevered through the hard times and come out on the better end of business success. In this episode, we discuss: Always keeping your 'why' front and center when making decisions Why and how to create micro-experiments for your freelancing clients How to keep a steady flow of clients rolling through your business Now, let's hack... Jason Resnick

Updates  Kyle: Getting ready for a family campout. Adam: 1st-semester college has been paid for.. // going on vaca again! Different lake but excited.  Today… stout festival?   News Josepha Haden proposes WordPress Advisory Board Changes Tim Nolte is becoming a full-time WordPress Developer with Forum One out of Virginia Caldera Forms has been acquired by…

Where Are You Going To Be In Five Years? What word or phrase would YOUR CLIENTS use to describe what you do for them? Would they call you some type of technical implementer? Or, do they think of you as a revenue-generating partner helping them build their business? The answer to THAT QUESTION has everything …

Updates Kyle: Very productive while out of the USA. Drinking more… more affordable. Not in excess. Adam: Mini vacation was great at a lake house  // looking forward to the next one!   // One kid done with HS.. actual graduation is in a few days from when this episode goes live. News Pantheon acquires StagingPilot…

This weeks episodes will be my 400 WP-Tonic show it been a bit of ride with loads of ups and downs! However, I would like to take the opportunity to personally thank all the regular panelists for their on going support, especially John Locke and Sallie Goetsch who agreed to come on my first round-table show! With Special Guest Panelist John James Jacoby of WordPress Weekly Podcast #1 - Happy Sweet 16, WordPress https://wptavern.com/happy-sweet-16-wordpress #2 - North Face tried to scam Wikipedia to get its products to the top of Google search https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18644158/north-face-wikipedia-hack-leo-burnett-top-imagens #3 - After $40M Series D, Pantheon Acquires A WebOps Company For Automated Updates https://news.crunchbase.com/news/after-40m-series-d-pantheon-acquires-a-webops-company-for-automated-updates/ #4 - How Much Money Do WordPress Developers Make? That and More Insights on the Life of a WordPress Developer in Our First-Ever Industry Report https://deliciousbrains.com/wordpress-developer-statistics/ #5 - A Model for WordPress Accessibility http://adrianroselli.com/2019/05/a-model-for-wordpress-accessibility.html #WordPress #Pantheon #WordPressDevelopers

This weeks episodes will be my 400 WP-Tonic show it been a bit of ride with loads of ups and downs! However, I would like to take the opportunity to personally thank all the regular panelists for their on going support, especially John Locke and Sallie Goetsch who agreed to come on my first round-table show! With Special Guest Panelist John James Jacoby of WordPress Weekly Podcast #1 - Happy Sweet 16, WordPress https://wptavern.com/happy-sweet-16-wordpress #2 - North Face tried to scam Wikipedia to get its products to the top of Google search https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18644158/north-face-wikipedia-hack-leo-burnett-top-imagens #3 - After $40M Series D, Pantheon Acquires A WebOps Company For Automated Updates https://news.crunchbase.com/news/after-40m-series-d-pantheon-acquires-a-webops-company-for-automated-updates/ #4 - How Much Money Do WordPress Developers Make? That and More Insights on the Life of a WordPress Developer in Our First-Ever Industry Report https://deliciousbrains.com/wordpress-developer-statistics/ #5 - A Model for WordPress Accessibility http://adrianroselli.com/2019/05/a-model-for-wordpress-accessibility.html #WordPress #Pantheon #WordPressDevelopers

This week on WPwatercooler we discussed the gauntlet that we must travel through to get our client’s MVP to market. From change orders to delays and phasing we talk about all this and more on this episode of WPwatercooler.Check out our most recent episode of WPblab – Marketing Yourself as a WordPress Developer with Rachelle WiseRuined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It Kindle EditionGOTO 2015 • Agile is Dead • Pragmatic Dave ThomasEmbracing Scope Creep – Chris LemaProject Strobe: Protecting your data, improving our third-party APIs, and sunsetting consumer Google+Join us on this episode of WPwatercooler by visiting our Participant guidelines page.WPwatercooler network is sponsored by ServerPress makers of DesktopServer. Be sure to check them out at https://www.serverpress.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Marketing yourself as a WordPress developer is challenging, especially when starting out. In this episode, Jason and Bridget are joined by Rachelle Wise of Wise Arts to brainstorm some solutions.Join us on this episode of WPblab by visiting our Participant guidelines page.Thank you to our sponsor!The WPwatercooler network is sponsored by ServerPress makers of DesktopServer. Be sure to check them out at https://www.serverpress.com.If you’re interested in sponsoring the 40 minute mark of this show, check out the details on our sponsor page. We offer episode by episode spoken ads, rather than large contracts. A show by you for you.Networking through WordPress MeetupsRachelle used to be part of her local WordPress Meetups and WordCamps when she lived in Minnesota. So when she moved here to California, she looked it up and lo and behold she found the OC WordPress Meetup, where she met Bridget and Jason.Often, attending WordPress Meetups is an excellent way to get work, said Jason, who was reminded about the way Steve runs the general meetup where a lot of new users show up. Steve would suggest that those who need help meet a developer. Mostly, they would want to hire.Rachelle didn’t get work that way directly but still sees the value of Meetups, especially since one works alone.“I’ve definitely given a lot of free advice; not any paid stuff yet.” Rachelle WiseWordCamps and Meetups are brand awareness campaigns in the sense that you are meeting people and reminding them that you are in business or still in business. Keeping top of mind is important with any business.Think about speaking. Even Jason Tucker tells attendees of Whittier WordPress Meetup to build something then teach people how you did it, what you learned, and what you would do better next time.Marketing Wise Arts So FarRachelle has done quite a bit of instinctual marketing so far. She hasn’t done any paid ads yet. She started working at an agency then worked as a sole developer for an agency. Once she became a remote worker, she was never going back.After the sole developer gig devolved, she reached out to former contacts at the agency and she got several contracts through that.“Eighty to ninety percent of my work is referral based. I meet someone I do a project for them, they tell their friends… I end up getting these amazing chains of referrals.” Rachelle WiseThe Magic Word is ReferralsMost businesses works on referrals and that’s why brand awareness is so important, Bridget reminds Jason and Rachelle. Being on shows, having Twitter and social media accounts matter. If referrals are your biggest source (your audience) then going to WordPress Meetups matters most.“Referral marekting is marketing.” Bridget WillardDon’t burn bridges. Keep lines of communication open. If you decline work, refer instead.The thing about referral work is people often build a thing, put up a landing page and that’s it. At some point, you’re going to exhaust your first circle. You do that through marketing whether it’s social marketing or paid marketing or in-person events like Ross Gile does with Chamber of Commerces.How should a beginner developer market himself?“You have to build something. Please build something.” Jason TuckerSet up a GitHub account.Set up CodePen account.Go through FreeCodeCamp.org. It makes you build projects that can be used on your portfolio.Spend time on LinkedIn and keep it updated.Call yourself a website builder.Do pro-bono work to build your portfolio.Case studies with screenshots are better than just links.Videos to show specific functionality is great.Build your own website and maintain it.Pick at niche then go to a trade show. Build landing pages for that niche.Have business cards to hand out.Go to WordCamps and WordPress Meetups.Go to Javascript or WooCommerce Meetups.“Build your site on WordPress.com; it’s better than WIX.” Bridget WillardHow do you get free work?“Find someone that looks like they need help.” Rachelle WiseTry approaching local pizza places or nonprofit. Join a hackaton like Do Action. Definitely have business cards, suggests Jason, to give to local businesses. You may even barter for business like Jason did with the local dog groomers.“You should build projects you care about.” Rachelle WiseEven better, is building something that you believe in, Rachelle reminds us.Demonstrate that you know how to learn.Rachelle Wise reminds us that the most important part of being a WordPress developer is demonstrating that you know how to learn. Good design matters, so does looking things up on Google. Show you have personality.A Cobbler’s Children Have No ShoesYou need to maintain and update your own website. The proverb is true, but you need to invest in your own business. No one can care about it more than you.“If you don’t maintain your own portfolio and your own website, the cobbler’s not going to make shoes for anybody.” Bridget WillardIn your portfolio and case studies, don’t link to their website only. Always use screenshots, reminds Jason Tucker. Rachelle has been making videos now which shows the functionality rather than the code.It’s important to let people know that you are accepting clients whether it is in public or through private communication.“You have to keep your eye on the pipeline.” Rachelle WiseIf the work you do is confidential, anonymize it says Jason. Show the trend on the graph without the actual detail.Tool & Tip of the WeekBridget loves kencko.com. It’s a good way to get two servings of fruit and veg a day and the cost works out to be $3 each — much cheaper than juice stores.Jason is a huge fan of UTM codes and recommends the Chrome extension, Google Analytics UTM Builder. It allows you to build campaigns and make presets. He states a use case where people are using a QR code at his church and Rachelle and Bridget are verbally shocked they are being used.Rachelle is a new convert to Calendly. With timezones and the annoyance of email back and forth, it helps quite a bit with scheduling. People used to just call her and she was having quite a bit of conflicts. She’s happy with meeting blocks that can be set up in 30 minute and 1 hour types.Do you have any tools or tips we should know about?We’d love to hear from you. Also, how are you marketing yourself? Tell us in the comments below. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You may have previously read some of my blogs about GoDaddy Webhosting. They have an amazing managed migration tool, as well as the ability to spin up development / staging servers, however, the Proof is in the Data, WPEngine has better Uptime and Speed than GoDaddy Managed WordPress. Both solutions are "Managed WordPress" which means you don't need to be a Web Developer or WordPress Developer to manage your webhosting, from set up, to back-ups to staging environments and SSL, it's all taken care of for you. We are solutions providers at Data Driven Design, and the data is starting to tell us after 3-4 years of hosting our clients' websites on GoDaddy Managed WordPress, that it may be time to upgrade to WPEngine. WPEngine costs significantly more, and we're willing to eat that cost for our clients to have a better experience. As a result, I wanted to show all of you out there how to migrate your WordPress sites to WPEngine. I hope this helps! Best, Paul --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/paulhickey/support

Krista is a WordPress developer, co-host of the Get Back To Design Podcast, and creator of the Simply Profitable Designer Summit. She specializes in collaborating with passionate designers to craft websites that directly support their clients' goals, while helping them simplify their businesses to spend more time doing what they love - design. How she left her full-time job as a developer and started her own business beginning with theme building How her background provided a solid foundation in writing code The experience that led her to her true business calling Her recommendations on learning WordPress development and offering it as a service Krista's co-hosted podcast called Get Back to Design How she connects with designer clients How many projects she takes on per month and how she found the perfect workload balance to provide a top-notch client experience Her recommendations on managing multiple projects How her onboarding process keeps projects organized with a clear list of expectations and timelines Why it's important to provide the client with a home page review How to set expectations within the project scope when clients ask for “extra” How she helps designers make their business more simple, profitable and stress-free through The Simply Profitable Designer Summit How Summit in a Box teaches online business owners how to plan profitable summits How she turned client outreach into income generation for herself and affiliate speakers Her tips in balancing business with mom life What she outsources in life and business How she manages retainer clients How to simplify your business Links:Krista's Instagram The Simply Profitable Designer Summit (aff link) Get Back to Design PodcastKnow the codeMelissa on Get Back to DesignErin Flynn's Intro Packet Guide Krista's Summit in a Box Like what you heard? Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes. Click here to join the free community! Let's connect on Instagram!  

Aside from the obvious of developing the site, the role of being a WordPress developer often varies project to project. It is imperative that your developer is on the same page as everyone else. When it comes to meeting deadlines, your developer can only do so much without being provided content.

Ina spent 15 years in corporate America as a project manager. She loved her job. On maternity leave, she started her side business as a Wordpress Developer. Ina went full-time with side business 8 months ago and hasn't looked back since! We discuss: The Power of Tripwires Trusting Your Skills Sale Funnels The Benefits of a Business Coach Mindset of Successful Entrepreneurs Ina's Passion Questionnaire Get to Know Melody See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

WordPress Developer, Rene Morozowich, joins me to talk all things SEO! Rene works with agencies and small businesses to deliver and care for amazing websites. In this episode, we chat about: -What exactly is SEO -Keywords, tags, categories and what it all means -Do's and dont's when it comes to SEO -Apps and plugins to help you with SEO, like Yoast -Strategies you can use to make your content appealing to search engines and bring you up in results!   

My guest on the show today is Jason Resnick. Jason is a Work-from-home dad, Wordpress Developer, Founder of the weekly Podcast call ‘Live in The Feast’ and his daily podcast ‘Ask Rezzz’, and a coach for other freelancers. He helps other freelancers with their business by teaching them how to differentiate themselves in the market and build recurring revenue. For that he uses what he calls The Feast model.

Welcome back for Episode 33! It is my pleasure and privilege to welcome the phenomenal John Drinkwater onto the show for this episode which can best be described as a complete masterclass on all things podcasting. Have you ever thought starting your own podcast? Well, look no further as this episode will give you all the information and advice you need to get started! John is the presenter and producer of the show 'Experts Who Podcast' and knows a thing or two when it comes to the world of podcasting. He is also an experienced WordPress Developer with his business WP Business Club, avid and passionate Podcaster, and member of Toastmasters, DM lab Elite, and Podcast Paradise. This episode is so jam packed with value - whether you're currently podcasting, thinking of starting, or just interested in the field, this episode will blow you away. Enjoy!   And don't forget to connect with me @TheJamieKeeling and check out my blog at Little Grey Says Thanks for listening - and remember... stay OPTIMISED!   "Find your Passion, Live with Purpose, Make an Impact!"   Don't forget to subscribe and come and say hello to us on our social media pages!! You can find out more about Jamie on Facebook, at his blog and at Optimise Me!   www.optimisemenow.com

In this week WP-Tonic episode we have a great panel and interesting discussion. Well the big day is coming WordPress 5.0 is slated for public release on November 19, 2018. This is going be one of most important moments in the history of WordPress so we have a bit of chat about it at the beginning of the show. 1 - WordPress 5.0 Slated for November 19, 2018 https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-0-slated-for-november-19-2018 2 - What Have We Learned From Google? https://medium.com/s/story/what-google-teaches-us-2613711712de 3 - WP Simple Pay Joining Sandhills Development https://wpsimplepay.com/joining-sandhills-development/ 4 - 50 million Facebook user accounts hacked https://marketingland.com/50-million-facebook-user-accounts-hacked-249197 5 - Do You Need to Know React as a WordPress Developer? https://torquemag.io/2018/10/do-you-need-to-know-react-as-a-wordpress-developer/

Today in Part THREE of our WordPress For Small Business Companion Series we discuss discuss whether or not you should hire a WordPress Developer or go at it alone.   Our Ebook, WordPress For Small Business can be downloaded at: https://trinitywebmedia.com/free-ebook-download/

This is a pretty common question I get. It's probably a lot less than you think or the snobs and know-it-alls out there will tell you. Of course, the phrase "be a WordPress developer" is pretty subjective. So, I'm going to tackle "how much PHP do you need to know to build a WordPress plugin". Because, generally, if you know enough PHP to build a plugin... you can probably build a theme. And, it's a little bit more objective. Anyway, I lay out it all out in this episode and tell you the story of my very first WordPress plugin and what it lead to for me. Show notes: https://www.johnmorrisshow.com/284

In this episode of Hardcore MBA, Matthew Turner (author of The Successful Mistake talks) to Jan Koch, WordPress Developer, and Website Building Expert. Jan mentors online entrepreneurs to navigate effectively in their website development, especially when it comes to WordPress. In this episode, Matthew and Jan discuss: Jan’s business of building WordPress websites and custom […]

In This episode with great guest Tonya Mork founder Knowthecode which is one of the best online recourse for people who want to improve their WordPress coding abilities. Also Tonya has a great personal story which I'm sure the our audience will appreciate. We also talk about a recent interivew that was aired on This Week in Start Ups between Ryan Carson founder of Treehouse and Jason Calacanis connected to the future of online coding training.

Diane Kinney is a WordPress Developer, Designer, and Marketer. And soon, she’ll be adding author to that biographical line. She and Carrie Dils are working on a book called Real World Freelancing that talks all about what it really takes to be a freelancer. In this episode, she and I talk all about the writing process, decisions […] The post Episode 35: Diane Kinney & Writing an eBook appeared first on How I Built It.

Carrie Dils is a WordPress Developer and Consultant who is currently using her expertise to write a book for freelancers. Real World Freelancing: A No Bullsh*t Survival Guide, will walk freelancers through client management, business strategies, processes & tools, marketing, mental health, and more. Click here to get on the waitlist and be the first to be notified once it’s been published. In this broadcast, Carrie Dils and I talk about: What inspired Carrie to write her upcoming book, The Real World of Freelancing What most freelancers get wrong and how to correct it Should you try to productize your services? The four factors of raising your freelance rates How to connect with Carrie Dils Online: CarrieDils.com OFFICEHOURS.FM Podcast @cdils Her Upcoming Book: Real World Freelancing Resources Mentioned: The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss Click toTweet:   If nobody tells you you re too expensive right now, then you re too cheap. – @cdils If you enjoyed today s podcast, please leave a review on iTunes here. Thanks so much in advance for your support. The post ITT 091: How to Become a Better Freelancer with Carrie Dils appeared first on Tom Morkes.

Meet Nate Wright from Theme of The Crop (https://themeofthecrop.com/). Learn how he grew an audience for his new theme. Brilliant story of how he went from being a journalist to WordPress Developer & Designer. His niche? Restaurants... I like food so this is good. Connect with Nate: Website: Click here Facebook: Click here Facebook Page: Click here Twitter: Click here Github: Click here --- OUR EVENT: Do you want to make real change in your business? Join us at our in-person event Agency Transformation Live Meet Troy Dean; Lee Jackson, Chris Ducker, Kelly Baader, Amy Woods, Paul Lacey, Dave Foy and other legends in this fantastic conference focused on actionable steps that you can use to transform your agency. --- See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Meet Curtis, WordPress Developer and Business Coach and family man. He also runs the Smart Business Show Podcast. Learn how he created a process to make his work life less hectic, so he could spend more time with those he loves. Lee's takeaway: Know what you like to do, know what you want to be, and aim towards it. The result? You'll be very, very deliberate about your decisions, deliberate about the clients you're taking on, about the work you're doing. Transcript and Email Template: Head on over to the website here to grab the full transcript and the email template mentioned in this podcast. Connect With Curtis: Corporate Site: Click here SNF Design: Click here Twitter: Click here Podcast: Click here Book: Click here Plugins: Drip.co: Click here Delicious Brains: Click here Kraken.io: Click here --- OUR EVENT: Do you want to make real change in your business? Join us at our in-person event Agency Transformation Live Meet Troy Dean; Lee Jackson, Chris Ducker, Kelly Baader, Amy Woods, Paul Lacey, Dave Foy and other legends in this fantastic conference focused on actionable steps that you can use to transform your agency. --- See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In today’s episode, we talk about some strategies to shortcut to learn how to become a WordPress developer.

Meet Puneet Sahalot from Ideabox creations, WordPress Developer and WordCamp speaker. He and his team are the Creators of the WordPress Beaver Add-ons plugin. Enjoy his story from Agency to Plugin developers in an exciting new market.  Action today: Build designs that can be used for all users not specific clients Keep your team motivated. Allow everyone to speak out and share their ideas Have your own quality analyst, they help you test your end product- you miss things when looking at the same things over and over. Plugins: Advanced Custom Fields - https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/ Beaver Builder - https://www.wpbeaverbuilder.com/ Custom Metabox 2 - https://wordpress.org/plugins/cmb2/ Infinite WP - https://wordpress.org/plugins/iwp-client/ Gravity forms - http://www.gravityforms.com/ Caldera forms: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/caldera-forms/  Connect with Puneet: Website - http://iampuneet.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/psahalot --- OUR EVENT: Do you want to make real change in your business? Join us at our in-person event Agency Transformation Live Meet Troy Dean; Lee Jackson, Chris Ducker, Kelly Baader, Amy Woods, Paul Lacey, Dave Foy and other legends in this fantastic conference focused on actionable steps that you can use to transform your agency. --- See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Bill Erickson. Bill is a WordPress Developer, an entrepreneur, a husband, a father, a skier, an avid reader, a gardener, and a winemaker living in Georgetown, TX. He s been developing with WordPress and contributing to the community since 2006. Bill has written 20 WordPress plugins, which have been downloaded 668,661 times and has spoken at 13 conferences regarding WordPress. Last, but certainly not least, Bill is a core contributor to our very own Genesis Framework project. In this 40-minute episode Brian Gardner, Lauren Mancke, and Bill Erickson discuss: Bill’s decision to become a freelancer Transitioning from Thesis to the Genesis Framework Building your brand and your business with shareable content Using your website to prequalify potential clients Scaling your business through efficiency The importance of contracts Building a work/life balance that works for you Listen to StudioPress FM below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes The Show Notes This episode is brought to you by Digital Commerce Summit Follow Bill on Twitter Visit BillErickson.net Bill’s WordPress Plugins Bill’s Code Snippets Matt Report: Systemizing Your Way to More Revenue Freelance WordPress Developer Bill Erickson The Transcript Jerod Morris: Hey, Jerod Morris here. If you know anything about Rainmaker Digital and Copyblogger, you may know that we produce incredible live events. Well, some would say that we produce incredible live events as an excuse to throw great parties, but that’s another story. We’ve got another one coming up this October in Denver. It’s called Digital Commerce Summit and it is entirely focused on giving you the smartest ways to create and sell digital products and services. You can find out more at Rainmaker.FM/Summit. That’s Rainmaker.FM/Summit. We’ll be talking about Digital Commerce Summit in more detail as it gets closer. For now, I’d like to let a few attendees from our past events speak for us: Attendee 1: For me, it’s just hearing from the experts. This is my first industry event, so it’s awesome to learn new stuff and also get confirmation that we’re not doing it completely wrong where I work. Attendee 2: The best part of the conference, for me, is being able to mingle with people and realize that you have connections with everyone here. It feels like LinkedIn Live. I also love the parties after each day, being able to talk to the speakers, talk to other people who are here for the first time, people who have been here before. Attendee 3: I think the best part of the conference, for me, is understanding how I can service my customers a little more easily. Seeing all the different facets and components of various enterprises then helps them pick the best tools. Jerod Morris: Hey, we agree. One of the biggest reasons we host the conference every year is so that we can learn how to service our customers people like you more easily. Here are just a few more words from folks who have come to our past live events. Attendee 4: It’s really fun. I think it’s a great mix of beginner information and advanced information. I’m really learning a lot and having a lot of fun. Attendee 5: The conference is great, especially because it’s a single-track conference where you don’t get distracted by, “Which session should I go to?” and, “Am I missing something?” Attendee 6: The training and everything the speakers have been awesome but I think the coolest aspect for me has been connecting with both people who are putting it on and the other attendees. Jerod Morris: That’s it for now. There’s a lot more to come on Digital Commerce Summit. I really hope to see you there in October. Again, to get all the details and the very best deal on tickets, head over to Rainmaker.FM/Summit. That’s Rainmaker.FM/Summit. Voiceover: StudioPress FM is designed to help creative entrepreneurs build the foundation of a powerful digital business. Tune in weekly as StudioPress founder Brian Gardner, and VP of StudioPress Lauren Mancke share their expertise on web design, strategy, and building an online platform. Lauren Mancke: On this week’s episode, Brian and I are joined by Bill Erickson to discuss how freelancers can scale their businesses. Brian Gardner: Hey everyone, welcome back to StudioPress FM. I am your host Brian Gardner, and I am joined as usual with my cohost, vice president of StudioPress Lauren Mancke. Today we are, as always, very excited about the show, because we get to continue our series with members of the Genesis community, and that’s always been fun so far. Today we are joined by Bill Erickson. Bill is a WordPress developer, an entrepreneur, a husband, a father, a skier, an avid reader, a gardener, and a winemaker, living in Georgetown, Texas, which I think is just north of Austin. He’s been developing with WordPress and contributing to the community since 2006. Bill has written 20 plugins, which has been downloaded almost 700,000 times, and has spoken at 13 conferences regarding WordPress. Last but certainly not least, Bill is a core contributor to our very own Genesis Framework project. Bill, it is a huge pleasure to have you on StudioPress FM. Welcome to the show. Bill Erickson: It’s great to be here, thanks for having me. Beginnings in the Development World Brian Gardner: When I decided to have this series Lauren and I spoke about who we wanted to have on the show, and without a doubt you were on the top of that list, and so I’m thankful you took that invitation to heart and you’re here. I want to start here with a very obvious question, one that helps set the foundation of what the rest of the stuff that we’ll be talking about will be. Tell us how you got into development, and have you always been a nerd? Bill Erickson: Well yes, I’ve always been a nerd, but my past in development’s been a bit of a roundabout approach. In high school I got a summer job working at a print shop where we made brochures, business cards, basically all the print materials for a business. Then some of the businesses will come in wanting websites too, and they didn’t do that. I figured, It can’t be that much more difficult than designing a brochure, so I decided to do it on the side and partner with a friend who knew how to code HTML and CSS. Then a little later on I decided I wanted to figure out the HTML and CSS part myself and realized I’m a much better coder than I am a designer, so I made the switch. Brian Gardner: A lot of people can do one really well. Lauren happens to be one of those people. I knew she was a great designer when she first came around, and as I realized that she was also capable of coding, that’s when the light bulb went off. I was like, “I can let her take over a lot of the stuff I’ve been doing, because she can do it all! Like the Renaissance woman, you know? Lauren Mancke: Sometimes you just want to design, your brain is on fire, and you’re creative. Sometimes development is a good switch, for me, anyway. I like to just, A to B, do exactly what I need to do. Bill, why did you start building your business around WordPress? What is it about CMS that you find so appealing? Bill Erickson: I had been building sites, like I said, with just static HTML and CSS, and then I got into the business of having to do text changes for clients. It was very boring for me, and I’m sure my clients didn’t appreciate paying me to make small text changes. This is about 2006, and I started looking around for what CMS tool I can use. WordPress, at that time, and it still is, one of the easiest tools to use for end user, for the client, but it’s also really easy for a beginner developer to learn. That’s one thing a lot of the professional developers discount, is they say WordPress is messy in its procedural code, but I think it’s one of the keys to its success. It has a low barrier to entry, so if you want to just get started you can find a filter to change Read More text, and then once you accomplish that it’s very easy to work your way up to something more complex, rather than having to grasp a deep knowledge of something. I got into it both because it was something that I could grasp when I was first learning, but also because it was really easy for my customers to use, and it has only become more so. Brian Gardner: The good thing about WordPress, and even Genesis now as a whole, is that there’s so many people who have understood how to do it hands-on by themselves, and then have written about it, that there’s so much documentation. You can go to Google and figure out anything, pretty much, how to do this in WordPress, or how to do that in Genesis. People like yourself who’ve written tutorials, and Jerod and I and other people who’ve done code snippets, it’s very easy for someone who’s new to go in and, kind of behind the scenes because no one knows they’re doing it, they Google, they learn … There’s not just a book you have to read, or a class or a course you have to take, you can Google your way into the community from the development side. That’s one thing I like about it. Bill Erickson: Yeah, and a lot of us got started that way. I know I got started by Googling and searching for code snippets, and that’s how I learned. As I progressed I was developing these code snippets, so I put them out to help others, but also to help myself so I’d be able to find those later. It’s sort of a community where we’re all sort of learning together, and just the knowledge gets documented, so everyone can jump in at any point. Transitioning from Thesis to the Genesis Framework Brian Gardner: We spoke last week with Carrie Dils about just the open source community, and just how that sort of pay it forward mentality really helps grow the product, grow the software and the communities around it. Typically what we do is ask our guests how they got started in Genesis specifically, but your story’s a good one, and something I want to tell, because I was directly involved with that. Before Genesis, or before you knew better for that matter, Bill was working on Thesis, and he was a Thesis developer and had done a lot of client work around Thesis. About six years ago … I can’t believe it’s been that long, Chris Pearson, the developer of Thesis, had a falling out with my current business partner, Brian Clarke. The too-long-don’t-read version of that whole story is that their partnership fell apart. Brian reached out to me and a couple others, and we formed the company that we have now, which is Rainmaker Digital. Bill, you saw the writing on the wall as this was all going down back then, and reached out to me. I think it was on Twitter DM, and asked about Genesis. I knew you as a Thesis developer, so as the opportunist in me, I jumped on that right away. I think we got on a Skype call within five minutes of when you sent that. Is that, how I remember, how you got into the Genesis community? Am I missing anything here? Bill Erickson: No, that pretty much covers it. I just want to say thanks again for all the help you provided in that transition. I’d been building with Thesis for years at that point I think, like two or three years, and every single one of my leads was coming from them. We had this symbiotic relationship where I’d build a really cool site, you get featured on their website, which would then generate more leads coming to me, which worked well, but as Thesis was going one direction and the rest of WordPress was going a different, it was sort of getting stuck in an area where I wasn’t having the freedom to move where I wanted. That’s what I was talking to you about, is I wanted to make the transition to something that was more WordPress based, where it followed more of the WordPress standards. My problem was, all of my work was coming from Thesis, and you really helped me through that transition by sending me a lot of great leads. I think it was about a six-month period from when I was 100% Thesis-based work to 100% Genesis-based work. I never could have bridged that gap if it wasn’t for you sending me all those great leads. Brian Gardner: That’s good to hear. Bill s Decision to Become a Freelancer Lauren Mancke: Okay, so let’s talk freelancing. I think you and I, our paths crossed when you did make the switch to Genesis, so go back a little bit before that and tell us about at what point you decided to branch out on your own and start freelancing. Bill Erickson: It was all about timing for me. I was actually in college getting a finance degree, and building WordPress websites on the side. I was a student worker making about $10 an hour on university websites, but it was something I enjoyed doing. Then the 2008 financial crisis happened, and all the finance internships disappeared, and I figured it’d be a good time to focus on my other passion, WordPress. Right as I graduated college, my goal was just, I was going to experiment for a year and see if I could cover my living costs for a year. Luckily I was a poor college student so those costs were fairly low, and I was able to just make it. Then it worked out, and I just kept going, and got a little better and a little better, and now we’re about 10 years into me being a freelancer, so that worked out pretty well. Or, seven years I think now, full time. Brian Gardner: A few years ago you did an interview with our friends over at iThemes about freelancing. I love how they open up the post. They say, “Bill Erickson is a freelance WordPress developer who gives back.” We just talked about that, and we’ll talk to it a little bit later also in the show. First off, it’s true, as I’ve witnessed first hand just how much you help, both in the Genesis and the WordPress community. You have code snippets on your site, and you publish tutorials and stuff like that, but you also, I see you in Slack, and on our Genesis GitHub repository, and just within the general community, just helping where you can. I know you’re busy, and I know you realize that it’s important, even still, to give back, and I appreciate that. You’re also a busy guy, which of course means you’ve got a pretty long lead time in case somebody wants to hire you as a freelancer, and you’re pretty selective now at this point, which is a good place to be, right? Bill Erickson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Building Your Brand and Your Business with Shareable Content Brian Gardner: It seems like a lot of freelancers these days are kind of in that starving artist mode, where everyone’s starting up and there’s saturated markets and so forth. I guess they’re trying to fight for their food. What’s your secret at this point, to being so busy as a freelancer? Bill Erickson: At this point a lot of it came down to luck and timing. I got started in WordPress, like I said, about 10 years ago, and in that time the freelance WordPress development space was nowhere near as competitive as it is now. There just weren’t that many of them, so I was able to make a name for myself a lot easier. Now that I’ve been doing it for so long, I have a long client list and a lot of those clients really enjoyed working with me, so they keep coming back. About 50% of my work right now is either past clients or people who have directly recommended from past clients. A lot of it is establishing your business, establishing your name, and building that reputation. And I built my reputation by giving back, by writing blog posts and code snippets, and contributing to Genesis and writing plugins. I don’t want to stop what was working, so I do make a point of, even when I’m busy, doing what I can to give back. I find that finding where your … Look at what you produce, and see what you can easily turn into a shareable thing. For me a lot of it revolves around plugins and code snippets, so as I’m building out a project, they need some specific feature, I’ll put in a little bit more time really cleaning up and extending this feature a bit more than a client actually needs so that I can turn it into a plugin that I can then share. I’m going to put in 20 hours building this feature, maybe I could put in 30 and make it something that I can release, and will help others, and will also promote myself, because then people will find it and want to hire me. Right now a lot of my work is based on my past reputation and my past experience with clients, because a lot of past clients are coming back, but I got to that point by giving back, and that’s why I still do it. Brian Gardner: That’s pretty funny. The last couple weeks I have published two different blog posts on my blog, tutorials on how to do something in Genesis, and I was literally in the process of developing a theme and adding that feature. As soon as I would add that and had the code ready, instead of just finishing the theme and so on and going back to it, I stopped right then and there, that evening, one night, and just wrote the tutorial. Because I had just implemented it, it was fresh on my mind, it was something that I knew somebody was going to want. I hear what you’re saying there, which is, it’s kind of cool to document the stuff that you’re doing for something else, and then use that to benefit, a) the community, but also yourself, in that now you have shareable content, yet another thing that could get your name out there. For anyone out there freelancing, that’s kind of unsolicited advice there, how to help build your brand and how to move forward your business by doing things in that kind of way. Bill Erickson: It’s not purely a marketing tool or a self-promotion tool. It’s actually really useful in your business, because I spend a lot of time thinking about a problem and what’s the best way to solve it, so I create that solution. Six months down the line I might need that again. Instead of spending the hours trying to figure out what it is and finding the right hooks and filters, if I’m in that mindset right after I solve the problem, if I document it, I can look back at that so that I know that’s how I do it. I don’t have to keep it in my mind, I just have to remember, yeah, I wrote about it on my blog, so I can scroll through and find it. That’s how it all started for me. It was just documenting what I was doing so that I could find that information later on. The side effect was, other people started using that information and it helped my SEO. Brian Gardner: So you’re your own reader, blogger. Bill Erickson: Yes. Brian Gardner: You bookmark your own pages, how narcissistic. No I’m kidding, I do the same thing with my code snippets too. I put them on my site just so I have a place for me to go back to and say, “Hey, check out this greatly designed site. Oh look, it’s mine.” Stuff like that. Definitely wise there. Using Your Website to Prequalify Potential Clients Lauren Mancke: I want to follow up on Brian’s question from before. We have a page dedicated on StudioPress where we recommend Genesis developers and designers to the community. You’re on that page and you have been for a while. What impact, if any, has that source been for you in terms of acquiring leads and getting new business? Bill Erickson: I still get a ton of great leads from StudioPress. Even though there’s a ton of people on there, it used to be only two or three other developers on the recommended list. Even now that you have such a larger community, and a lot of other great resources, I still get a lot of excellent clients from there. The StudioPress recommended developers page, it’s like a fire hose of leads, and it’s up to you to qualify them. Because the StudioPress community and your customers, they have such a wide range of needs. Some just need tiny minor tweaks like changing some colors, or adding a small feature. Some hear about the benefits of the SEO of Genesis and don’t want to do anything themselves, and they want a custom theme and everything built for them. There’s a wide range of what someone might want, so you need to make sure you’re not just getting a ton of emails and having to filter that. You want to use your website to describe what it is you do, what your expertise is, so that the incoming leads can self-select, and select a person who is best fitted for that job. What I’ve found is, there is a need to qualify your leads, and that’s something you can do with your website. Just review your emails, and if you see that you’re doing a lot of responses saying, “I’m not a good fit for this,” whether it’s for the type of work, or your timeline, or your budget, just make a note to include that information on your site. Because if you’re getting emails about that, that means you haven’t educated the prospect. Lauren Mancke: We had a form on our Northbound site that led people, basically them thinking about their project. A lot of people contact you that haven’t really thought through what they need, so our contact form had different areas that they needed to figure out before they even contacted us, or have answers to. That way we could review those before we got back in touch with the person. Bill Erickson: Yeah, definitely, like a client onboarding process. Because the average person who needs a website, they’ve never done this before, or if they did it was five or six years ago. You do it all the time. They don’t know what the process is. They don’t even know what questions they should be asking or what information to provide, so whatever you can do to help their job of finding someone to help them will definitely help. Brian Gardner: We’ve been asked probably a number of times if there’s a way that we can assist in that process by somehow categorizing people on the developers list, especially since the list has gotten longer and the skills that are on that page vary from technical programming to straight up graphic design. Yes, to some degree that’s our responsibility, to see if we can try to tag that a little bit better. But I like what you said, though, with prequalifying the leads. A lot of people just have a contact form on their website, which is basically, in my opinion, an advertisement to just copy and paste a request for a job, or a submittal or something like that. Then it’s not a great fit. With all the forms out there these days, gravity forms and ninja forms, you have the ability to build a complex form that prequalifies these inquiries, and saves A, you a lot of time, and B, them time too. Bill Erickson: Yeah, it would be nice if StudioPress had some sort of layers of filters to help qualify them, but at the end of the day, every service provider on that page has different requirements, different services they offer, different budgets and timelines. There’s not a one size fits all categorical system that could apply. The easiest thing to do is just give all their information, and then allow those providers to do their own qualifications on their website. Brian Gardner: Aside from the fact that it would take us a little bit of time to do that, that’s kind of what I come down to. Because I realize there’s also a vibe thing, that when you land on someone’s site you get a vibe whether or not, “Hey, this is a person I could do work with. They’re my style or they’re not. I don’t want to qualify anybody out of that by some sort of check system that, Oh, well, I’m looking for a project under $5,000, so immediately Bill Erickson doesn’t show up. Whereas maybe it would have been a good fit, and maybe you’re slow a little bit, and you would pick up a job that might be less than $5,000. I don’t want to take that away from you either. Lauren Mancke: I also, when I was redesigning that page, I wanted to include on the actual page the screen captures of some of the recent projects that they’ve done. Because I think visually that tells someone the types of projects that that developer has experience with, that they can visually scan that and see what might be a good fit in that way as well. Bill Erickson: That’s a great idea. That’s what a lot of people, when they’re shopping, looking for a developer to build their website, they’re just going straight to portfolios. To be able to have that in one spot so they don’t have to open all the sites would be a useful tool. Brian Gardner: I didn’t like that decision at the very beginning, Lauren, because when I first saw the page it was really, really long. Then as I thought through it I’m like, “Okay, this is not above the fold mentality from 10 years ago. This is more about doing what you said, providing little snapshots. Even if it’s just the most recent four or whatever. At least you can just scroll up and down the page and get that vibe sort of thing that I was talking about. Now speaking of people on the page and whatnot, Bill, I know that part of your strategy at this point, because you are so busy, are somewhat selective on the stuff that you take on, you have kind of a … sort of like a little referral system. Not necessarily in exchange for money, but just people who you pass referrals on to that are, a) that you know and respect and feel comfortable passing those along to. Jared Atchison is a good friend of yours and ours. He’s the first person that comes to mind there as an example of a developer you might send client inquiry to. Scaling Your Business Through Efficiency This leads to a bigger question in situations within the freelance world. How do you scale your business? I know you take your projects and pass them on to other people, but how do you scale your business specifically to make more money? Because there’s only so many hours in a day. What have you done over the last couple years, or what have you learned as a more efficient way to do business, so that you can become more profitable? Bill Erickson: There’s a lot of ways you can scale your business. One that I’m particularly fond of is through efficiency. You can build websites a lot faster using Genesis because it does a lot of it for you, and then you can focus only on the custom features. Then the code you build can be reused on future projects, so when I build a great events calendar I can then, six months later, reapply that to a new project and then change the styling. There’s some code efficiencies you can do, and Genesis really helps with that. Another one is moving yourself up the value chain. When I got started I was basically doing just markup. I was doing PSD to Genesis websites. Most of them were $500 to $1,000, and I’d turn them around in a week. As I got more experienced I did work on more complex websites, and built more custom features, and charge more. Now I’m no longer doing just the development aspect. When someone comes to me we offer sort of a full package, so we have a $12,000 project minimum. It’s a team of three: a content strategist, a designer, and a developer, and we typically spend at least 12 weeks on a project. We’re really just working with the client to understand their needs, and design and implement it all in one house. Rather than, a lot of times when I was working with, saying I was just doing development, clients would go off to 99designs and get a design that doesn’t really serve their needs very well. I’d build it for them, but it’s not the best use of my time and the resources they have, so I’ve actually gone out and partnered with designers that I know do a great job of turning that around. Combining our services together we provide a much more valuable service. Brian Gardner: Is that why you took down the PSD to Genesis page? Bill Erickson: Yes and no. PSD to Genesis, it was a fun business to problem. Like I said, it’s the value. As I start charging more for my time, there’s less value that can be got out of that. There was a lot of people who do PSD to Genesis, and if I’m charging three or four times not many people are going to want to come to me, because at the end of the day I’m just converting a design into a website. I’m not providing as much value there. I saw that we could do better in a different direction. I found a designer that I really like working with, and a content strategist that I really like working with. I still do some sites where a design is provided for me, but I’m a bit more selective on that, because I really do enjoy being able to start from the beginning and identify what problems need solving. The change from that start to finish is so much larger than, they hand me a design and then the only measure of quality at that time is, Did you do what we told you to do? Does the design match? Is the site loading fast? It’s a lot more fun to do that problem solving stuff. Lauren Mancke: It’s probably a lot more fun to work with a good design too, than something that might not look very good. Bill Erickson: That’s the other thing, yeah, when you don’t know the design. Especially when you’re trying to provide a quote and the design hasn’t been done yet, and you don’t know who the designer is. You really leave yourself open to some uncomfortable weeks where you’re just plowing through a design that’s horrible. That’s another reason why I stick with one designer for the most part. Brian Gardner: I wasn’t setting you up for anything there, I just noticed. As I was preparing for the show I was actually going to link to that page, and then I kept Googling and I’m like, “Where is it?” I went to your site, I tried searching, and then I figured that at some point you kind of outgrew that. It is sort of like an entry into a community type of play, and I think there’s a need for it to some degree. What that basically does at this point, it frees that up for a few other people in the community to offer that service, which I know they’ve done. Yeah, I wasn’t mad or anything like that. Bill Erickson: No, and I took it down, I think, with the most recent redesign, where I was focusing more on this integration with my current designer. I took it down mostly because I’m no longer focusing on it, but also because I was getting very few projects that actually utilize that. Because like you said, there’s a lot of great people in the community who are providing it, I was charging a bit more for that than anyone else was, and so yeah, I was getting maybe one every two or three months. It didn’t seem like a good reason to focus my sight on that. Tools that Allow You to be More Efficient with Your Time Lauren Mancke: Bill, let’s talk about workflow. This is obviously something that really goes along with scaling your business, you kind of touched on, and it’s something in particular that you have spent a lot of time perfecting, and you’ve taken time to share your processes with others. I know we’ve had a few conversations about it. Can you give our listeners some insight to some of the tools that you use, and some that you’ve built yourself, which allow you to be more efficient with your time? Bill Erickson: Yeah, so like I was talking about growing your business with efficiency. There’s code efficiency, technical efficiency, but then there’s also business efficiency. A lot of your time is spent actually just running your business. Whether that’s responding to emails, or trying to manage projects, if you can find ways to optimize that process you’ll just open more time up for profitable activities. My website is really focused on qualifying leads so I don’t have to spend a lot of time responding to emails that aren’t a good fit. I’m always iterating it, adding or changing features. One that I added in the past year or two that’s been really helpful is the, When I can start, because I’ve found that most of the emails where I just immediately say “Sorry, I’m not a good fit” are the ones where they say, “We need a site live in the next three weeks,” and I wouldn’t be able to start for two months. Things like that, where you can give them the information they need to know you’re not a good fit. Then once I do get a quality lead, a lead that would fit well with me, they fill out the form, it comes to me, and I provide a nice detailed response. The email also shows up in a custom CRM that me and Jared Atchison developed, and we use it for all sorts of things. We use it for tracking lead data, so, Where are we getting sources of leads? Where are we getting sources of projects? You might find that 90% of your leads are coming from Google, but those aren’t really good leads, and that 80% of your work is coming from past clients. Having that knowledge can help you decide where to direct your marketing efforts. We also use the CRM to manage the projects, our active projects, and to track data on completed projects, like overall profitability. Put in the amount we build, what we estimate it would take us to build it out, how much time we actually spent on initial development and changes. Come up with the effective hourly rate, just so we could track how well our estimates are doing. Then on the design side, my team, we use Sketch exclusively, which works out really well. My content strategist uses it for the sitemaps and wireframes, then when we get to the design stage, the designer uses those same files and converts the wireframes into finalized designs, and then I take the finalized designs and turn them into a website. We save quite a bit of time by using the same tool throughout the entire process. We used to use Sketch for wire frames and then rebuild everything in Photoshop, but switching to Sketch has really helped out. Then finally, from a code perspective, I have a base child theme that I’ve developed. It’s very similar to the starter theme from StudioPress, but it just has some of my own style and code tweaks that I like in there. Then I have my code snippets where I keep useful bits and some plugins that I’ve developed. I try my best to, when I build something, build it once really well, and then put it somewhere where I know so that I can access it later. Brian Gardner: That speaks back to the efficiency thing, to have your own starter theme. Because when I start with stuff I pull something down, do all the Brian-isms in it, which takes anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes to knock things out and do things and rearrange things a different way. At some point, I don’t even have my own starter theme, believe it or not, at this point, because we iterate so much through StudioPress, and things get tested and added and whatever, and I’m like, okay, usually I just grab the latest theme that we’ve done, because I know that it’s probably the most currently coded well and tested, and go from there. Lauren Mancke: You start it with the one that I made. I made a starter theme for us to use. Brian Gardner: Like I said, I don’t have my own starter theme. But yes, I did I’m working on two themes right now. One is a free theme that I’ll probably be releasing within the next week or so called 27 Pro, and that was based off of the Genesis sample’s child theme. Then the other one, which will be on StudioPress for sale, and I haven’t named it yet because I’m pondering that, but that one was based off of the base theme that you have developed internally for us in house. The Importance of Contracts Brian Gardner: Bill, you talked a little bit about the data there in your last segment, and you also did another interview with Matt Medeiros over at Matt Report. This was a little bit more on the technical side of business and being a freelancer, talking about systems and data and contracts and stuff like that. Let’s talk about contracts, because you mentioned in the interview that you live and die by them. I thought I would ask you to speak to that, because I think a lot of people get themselves into trouble and become inefficient because contracts aren’t clear and things like that. Is there anything that you want to elaborate on what you mean by that, and why that’s so important? Bill Erickson: Yeah, a good contract is incredibly important. The goal is it lays out what each party is expected to do. You should have a lawyer look it over because it is a legal document, but I also highly recommend you make it not overly complex, because your client needs to be able to read and understand it. It really should be a distillation of all your communication expectations. When there are questions throughout the project you’ll both refer to that document. Refer back to all the phone calls, and your notes, and the emails, take all that information that’s been provided, and come up with a single document that describes exactly what you’re going to do, when you’re going to do it, how much you’re going to charge, and then have the client agree to it. That’s basically what the contract is. The key sections that I include are the scope of work, which is where I say what it is I’m going to do, payment schedule, timeline, licensing of code. I like to be able to reuse my code, and so I make sure I note it that I’m never going to sell their site in whole to someone else, but unique pieces of functionality that I might develop I might reuse. The governing law, which is a legal thing, so that you could say, If we do get in a legal fight, this is where we’re going to do it. And then, any other aspects that you think are important to clarify. I include notes about migrations and phone calls and acceptable file types for designs, because those have all been areas of issues and past projects and I don’t want to repeat them. That’s why I use a contract. I use it as a way to guide the client through what we’re going to do, what he’s responsible for, what I’m responsible for, what we’re building together, so that throughout this three-month process or however long it is, we can all go back to that document and know what we’re talking about. Brian Gardner: Do you have any examples of, authenticity moment here, of an instance or a circumstance, one of the reasons why it became so important to you? Bill Erickson: Yeah, that’s the key of what the scope of work is. A lot of times I’ll get a design, I’ll provide a quote on it. Let’s say someone emails you a PSD file and you’re like, “Yeah, I think it’ll take me X many hours to build it, I’ll charge you $3,000 for this.” Then you’re like, Great, and so you start building it, and then when you send the site for review, the client comes back and was like, “Well, this isn’t working at all as I expected, because I thought this was going to do this, and that’s going to do that.” You might have seen the picture, but you didn’t really fully understand the functionality, or both of your understandings were different. The scope of work really just describes every key piece of functionality in the site, so then when a client comes back and says, “This is missing,” or, “This isn’t working right,” we look at that document and say, “Yeah, it doesn’t match what we describe here? Yes? Then it’s done right. If not, then let’s fix it.” That’s the most common area, is just not describing the functionality as well. The design is usually not a question. We’re both looking at the same designs, and if they don’t look the same then there’s something wrong. But functionality-wise, that’s a key area of issues. Then also just little things, like the acceptable file type. I don’t like working with Illustrator. I just don’t enjoy it at all. So when I get Someone who ll send me JPEG files of a design and I’m like, “Oh, it looks great,” and then I quote on it, and then they send me the final assets as Illustrator files, and I’m like, “Oh, this is going to take me so much longer.” Stuff like that. Specifying what you need. I’ve gotten design files in PowerPoint before, which is not an acceptable format for me. So yeah, it s stuff like that. It’s just, every time you finish a product, do a quick post-mortem of it, see how things went well, what didn’t go well, what could you have done to prevent it, and a lot of that is stuff that should’ve been communicated earlier on, like what is the migration process? How are you going to deal with, it takes four months to build the site, and our content is now out of date because the live site’s been updated, what’s going to happen? You should clarify these things ahead of time. Lauren Mancke: I think from my personal experience, any time a project doesn’t go smoothly it comes down to communication, like you said. It’s usually related to expectations, either from you as the developer expecting the client to do certain things, or the client expecting you to do certain things. Having that on the forefront of the project of communication, and defining the project’s scope before you begin, is really, really key. Bill Erickson: Yeah, I completely agree. Basically, I like contracts because it’s a communication tool. It forces you to verbalize all the things you’re assuming and the client’s assuming. Bill s Favorite Types of Projects Lauren Mancke: I also know from personal experience that you probably have too much work coming in, and so with that I know you have the luxury of being selective in choosing clients that you think would be enjoyable, or you can wait on larger projects like you’ve discussed that might have a bigger budget. What are some of your favorite clients, and what are some of the favorite types of projects you like to work on? Bill Erickson: My favorite projects are the ones where the clients trust our expertise. We have this whole process that works really well, and you’re hiring a great developer, a great designer. Trust them to do their work. Don’t redesign it. My designer will give you a great initial mockup, and then you go through and change up the design in a ton of different ways, which affects the usability, especially on mobile. The ones where they really just sit back and say, “I’m hiring the experts, I trust what you’re doing here, I’ll give you all the information, but let’s see where you can take it.” Those always come out the best. Some examples of that, The Kerouac Project. It’s a nonprofit for writers. It’s basically a place where writers can go for a few months and hone their craft. They gave us, basically, freedom to do what we thought would be best, and we came up with a beautiful design on that one that really emphasizes what they do. It’s like a design based around typography. Another one is Down Home Ranch. It’s a working ranch for Down syndrome people in the Austin area. That’s another one where we had a lot of fun with, and we were really able to capture the essence of the ranch, and provide them a beautiful design that’s really easy to use. Building a Work/Life Balance that Works for You Brian Gardner: You and I met six years ago, as we talked about, and a lot has happened since you and I met. You married Tara, a lovely person who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. You guys have since then had a baby. What impact have both of these milestones had, for better or worse, on your freelance business? Because when you started out it was just you. Like you said, even a long time ago, it was just you in college, and you had little responsibilities and didn’t require a lot of money and stuff like that. As your career has progressed, and I’m not going to say complicated because that’s completely wrong word, you’ve enlarged the scope of your responsibilities by getting married and having kids. How does that affect things now? Because I’m sure it’s different, your workflow and your responsibilities and the way you do things now, is different than it was maybe five years ago. Bill Erickson: Tara and I actually met just months after I started freelancing, so she’s been with me from the very start all the way to where we are here. Yeah, we started with poor college kids who were just having fun and making by, and now we work our own, and we have a family, and we have a house and a baby, and we have a lot of fun. Earlier we were talking about how … different ways to scale your businesses, and I said a focus on efficiency. That’s one way to grow your business, but you can also use it to maintain a certain level of income and work less. That’s one of the things that I’ve found. As my family’s grown I value my time a lot more, and so I focus on work life balance. I’ve found over the past few years, the amount of time I spend working goes down bit by bit, so I’m working a lot less now than I was a few years ago, because I’m able to spend more time with my family. I have to value my time in that way so I raise my rates, because my time is if I’m going to spend this time away from my family I’d better be getting compensated for it. On the negative side, I actually had to move my home office. I was downstairs, and now we have a baby running around, and she’d run, bang on the door yelling “Da-da,” wanting to play, so now I’m upstairs in a small guest room so that they have free range downstairs. Brian Gardner: Hey Lauren, do you know anything about that? Kids running around? With two buns in the oven and one running around already, your life’s about to get … You may need a separate building. Lauren Mancke: I have a plan for that. At our old house we built this really cool workshop in the back yard. It’s got skylights, it’s got everything. I want to bring it over to his house, because we’re renting that house out. I want to bring it over to this house and use it as my office, so I will be in a separate building. But it’s still here, so I can come back if needed. But yes, it is very difficult to focus with little people that don’t understand that the door means that you’re working. Brian Gardner: A great example of that kind of a space is Jason Schuller, a good friend of ours from back in the day. He ran Press75 and sold that, and he’s still doing some stuff online, but he built and refurbished his office on top of his garage. He does have his sort of own space. Back to the work life balance thing, if there’s anybody who I’m friends with online that I’ve seen so intentional about, not necessarily working more, but charging more to have more time for family, it’s Jason, because he’s put so much emphasis on his daughter. Every time I see an Instagram shot, it’s him, they’re there on a trail, or on a beach. Bill, you also spoke to that work life balancing, because I think it’s intuitive to want to just work more to make more money, instead of working more to then actually get to, “All I need is X amount,” and then start working back, and it s freeing up more time to have balance. Because as we know, we can work 24 hours a day if we want online, and sometimes we do, but also, to be respectful enough of your own family and the commitments you have to say, “I don’t need to make more money, I just need to make this money.” Then to become more efficient and charge more and whatnot, so that you can then spend more time with your family, is so refreshing to hear. Bill Erickson: That’s basically my approach. I don t work I enjoy what I do, but the reason I work is so that I can provide for my family and spend time with my family. The more I can make, the less I have to work, and then I can enjoy the fruits of my labor more. Advice for Aspiring Freelancers Lauren Mancke: Okay, so last but not least, what advice can you give a person who’s got some training and experience in development, and they’re trying to branch out as a freelancer? Any pro tips that you think they should hear before we go? Bill Erickson: Network with other freelancers, especially those that compliment your services. As a developer you’re always looking for good designers and copywriters, and on the reverse it’s the same, so just get out there and know people who you might partner with on projects, and who might recommend you. If you’re a developer, contribute to open source projects. When I’m looking for Genesis developers to recommend, I look to those who contribute to Genesis who have written patches or extensions to my personal Genesis plugins, or who’re writing their own Genesis plugins. I like to see their code, but I also like to see how they interact with other developers and users reporting issues. That gives you a little insight on their communication abilities in addition to their coding abilities. Brian Gardner: That’s good stuff, good stuff Bill. Normally we do a little call to action here at the end, and because there’s no PSD to Genesis for me to pitch for you, I’m just going to tell anybody who’s listening, if you’re looking to redesign your website, or start a website, or do something of the sort, we have all of Bill’s links, all the things that you would need to access and contact Bill, down in the show notes. BillErickson.net is his domain name. Bill comes highly recommended by us, all of us here at StudioPress. It’s been a pleasure working with him over the years. If you need anything, Bill is there and he’s the right guy, and if he’s not, he’ll set you up with the right person as well. I just want to thank you, Bill, for being on the show, taking the time out. I know, as we talked about, you’re busy, but I also know that this is your way of giving back, as well as marketing yourself a little bit, and that’s why we’re having you on the show. Hopefully, we can send you some business through this episode. For those listening, if you liked what you heard on today’s show, you can find more episodes of StudioPress FM over at, you guessed it, StudioPress.FM. You can also help us hit the main stage by subscribing to the show on iTunes. It’s a great way to never ever miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you next week.

Marketing sucks for (most) WordPress developers. Two major issues being there’s not enough time to do it, and there’s a certain stigma that it becomes to sales-y.  Throughout my travels, I’ve noticed a lot developers that have successful products — still — are afraid to really build up the marketing arm of their business. Even when they know they need to do it, they become paralyzed to take action. Today I’m stoked to interview Tonya Mork, electrical engineer & software engineer since the mid-80’s, experienced with managing multi-million dollar robotic projects, and now recently launching Know the Code membership site on today’s show. Hands down, this is one of my top shows of 2016. Tonya brings a wealth of knowledge and actionable advice that will inspire you to get out there and conquer your business — or at the very least — today’s to-do list. (more…)

Today I chatted with Michael Hull. I met him at WordCamp Asheville in North Carolina this past weekend. As we… The post Michael Hull – Mathematician, Musician, and WordPress Developer appeared first on Adam W. Warner.

Diesmal sitzen Hans Helge und René zu zweit auf dem "Königsblauen-internet-wordpress-sofa" und freuen sich über neue Anziehsachen und WordPress Swag. Der Dritte im Bunde - Sven triebt sich der weil in Europa auf diversen WordCamps rum, um neuen Swag zu organisieren :) Neben all dem Swag sprechen, die zwei Vollzeit Entwickler über Entwicklungsumgebungen. Konkret, gilt es zu klären was ist das Überhaupt - eine Entwicklugsumgebung, wozu wird so etwas benötigt, welche Möglichkeiten gibt es und welche Methode ist die beste? Aber hört es Euch selbst an und ganz wichtig schreibt, Kommentare gebt uns Feedback!! Sprecher in dieser WordPress Podcast Folge - Hans Helge Bürger - René Reimann Kritik, Ergänzungen oder Verbesserungsvorschläge? Gebt's uns! Die Kommentarfunktion wurde nur für Dich gemacht.

Madalin Milea, un roman stabilit in Franta este invitatul lui Adrian Boioglu in acest episod din TechVolution. Madalin este developer de WordPress asa ca discutia este legata de teme, plugins si felul in care poti sa castigi bani din activitati legate de o platforma open-source, precum WordPress. Intra in discutie cu Madalin Milea pe pagina lui de Facebook, pe Twitter sau pe website-ul lui. In discutie vei gasi referinte la site-ul pe care el il foloseste pentru a testa produsele, site-ul de cursuri online de la treehouse, site-ul de teme gratuite, dar si site-ul Theme Isle sau Codeinwp. Ai idei, pareri despre acest show sau vrei sa ne spui ceva? Scrie-ne contact@citypodcast.ro, pe Twitter sau pe Facebook. Intra pe CityPodcast.ro pentru a asculta si celelalte show-uri din prima retea de podcast-uri din Romania. Nu uita sa dai “Subscribe” in iTunes sau un aplicatia ta preferata de ascultat podcast-uri si sa ne dai un rating in cit mai bun in iTunes. Ne ajuta sa aparem si in fata altor ascultatori din Romania.

In today’s episode we look at how to improve our skills and become a better WordPress developer.

Allan Cole is a true polymath. Whether it's graphic design, web development, or music, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and produces mind-blowing results. You may know him as one of the co-authors of Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes, but he's also done websites and designs for big names like Nike, Okayplayer, Kanye West, Jay Electronica, and Janelle Monáe's Wondaland Arts Society! (And speaking of music, he's one half of the music duo The Stuyvesants. Highly, highly recommended!) We talked about his current path to success through WordPress, creative collaboration, and of course...the music. According to Allan, there are ways to do what you love and make a living, and he's a prime example of that! Allan Cole's Website Allan Cole's Work The Stuyvesants "Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes"

In today’s episode, we talk about the precautions to take when hiring a WordPress developer and giving them access to your site.

This week I talk to Mark Nishikawa about his path serving in The US Marines to becoming a software developer and ultimately landing into the world of WordPress. Upcoming Events WordCamp Providence WordCamp Sydney WordCamp Europe – in Sofia Bulgaria Segment 1: In the News Gmail Password Leak & WordPress Segment 2:   Interview with WordPress developer…

On this episode of WPwatercooler we will be discussing tips for when your WordPress developer or designer goes AWOL We've all been here before, we've hired someone to design or develop a website and mid project the person disappears. Some of us have inherited projects like this or have had to deal with burnt clients and dealt with the aftermath. What should they do and what can they do to minimize the effects of something like this from occurring. This one is going to be near and dear to our hearts, lets share some much needed help on this topic. Show airs June 2 at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT / 7PM UTC[LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”ep90-tips-for-when-your-wordpress-developer-or-designer-goes-awol-june-2-20″ show_gravatar=”true”] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Who wants to be in the client services field when you can be in product? After all, the road to the Golden Chalice is lined with riches and bountiful treasures. Create an MVP, launch it, and splash into your pool of coins like Uncle Scrooge. No one ever warns you about the long weekends, iterations, support and the hurtle of marketing. Who will pay us for our goods? There’s a lot more sweat equity that today’s startup buzz doesn’t warn you about. Not only do you have to build the product, but you have to build the platform you plan to sell and promote it on. Then there’s the task of choosing the right price to support growth and your existing customer base. Phew, just when we thought it was easy peasy. Today I sit down with famed WordPress developer Andrew Norcross to discuss his journey and the launch of Genesis Design Palette Pro. He’s here to share his insight about all that good stuff and more! (more…)

Today's topic is WordPress Developer's New Year's Resolutions – How to get better next year.On this episode of WPwatercooler we are talking about WordPress Developer's New Year's Resolutions – How to get better next year. Live stream starts at 11am PST[LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”ep67-wordpress-developers-new-years-resolutions-how-to-get-better-next-year” show_gravatar=”true”] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we're talking building websites as a WordPress Developer or Designer and in particular,weekend emails. This is when customers send you email on the weekend, do you reply? Yes or No. Is there a right answer? Is there a wrong one? This episode was inspired by Chris Lema's recent post over at ChrisLema.com[LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”ep34-weekend-emails-may-13-2013-5-518c0293629e5″ show_gravatar=”true”] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You can become a more efficient WordPress Developer by implementing these 11 steps.

Think freelancing is a tough gig? Try moving half way around the world and rebuilding your business from the ground up. In this amazing interview with Amber Weinberg, she’s going to share that story with us. We’re going to discuss the journey of selling WordPress sites to anyone that wanted one, to now working strictly working with agencies and commanding a minimum starting budget. All that and more in the latest episode of the Matt Report! (more…)

I had the chance to interview one of my favorite WordPress personas on Twitter Curtis McHale. I’ve been following Curtis for a while and just love the type of content he puts out. If you make a career out of using WordPress or a Freelancer in general you should read his blog and follow him on Twitter. If you want to learn how to scale from the small $500 sites, raise your rates, and fire your bad clients — continue on to watch the interview! (more…)

Today I outline the different ways to hire a WordPress developer. Sometimes we need help with a project and today I share tips on how to hire the correct person.

Join the Unstoppable Frankie Picasso as she goes on another mission, March 2, with her guest Ben Cope, a DotComPreneur, Web Designer, and Internet Marketing Consultant specializing in high-end, custom websites, including WordPress blogs. Ben was dubbed " The Internet Genius" by one of his clients, and I can tell you from my own experience working with Ben, that this name is not an exagerration. Would you like to know more about how the internet works? Do you have a company, product or service that needs an amazing ONLINE PRESENCE? Did you hear that it can cost thousands of dollars for a web site, something that is way out of your reach right now? Would you be surprised if you could do this work yourself and have it look professional for a fee that just about anyone can afford? Do you get impatient waiting for your 'web' guru to make even small changes for you, changes that need to be as responsive as you are to your customer? What is you could change your site EVERY DAY, by YOURSELF? IT's EASY TOO!! Would you like to understand about social marketing and how these sites can REALLY BE USED to benefit you and your business ? Have you heard of Wordpress, but wasn't sure what it is, how it works or even what it can do? If you have answered YES, to even one of these question, give yourself a 60 minute gift and tune into Mission Unstoppable Radio this evening because Ben is available to answer ALL of your questions and offer advice and help! Do words like Content Management System (CMS), page mash, SEO Plugins, Tweets, make you feel insecure and dumb? Don't worry, after tonight you will know exactly what they mean. Do you want to know how to boost Google and Alexa Rankings on your sites as well find out how your competitors are faring on theirs? Just what is Social Media Marketing and how is this going to benefit me? FInd out EVERYTHING tonight on Mission Unstoppable.. DARE to LEARN!!!

Joost and Frederick talk to Dougal Campbell, one of the original WordPress developers. They discuss various topics: from differences between WordPress and Drupal, and how they handle automatic testing and custom data types (for which WordPress has the upcoming custom post types and the pods plugin), to donations (or lack thereof) for plugins. They go in-depth about microformats and RDFa and how you could use the custom field functionality in WordPress (which Dougal wrote) to make use of those. Last but not least, WordPress 3 comes around the corner a couple of times, discussing all the cool new features in it (like author specific templates and background support) and what should and should not be in core, like multi site and multi domain settings.

Joost and Frederick talk to Dougal Campbell, one of the original WordPress developers. They discuss various topics: from differences between WordPress and Drupal, and how they handle automatic testing and custom data types (for which WordPress has the upcoming custom post types and the pods plugin), to donations (or lack thereof) for plugins. They go in-depth about microformats and RDFa and how you could use the custom field functionality in WordPress (which Dougal wrote) to make use of those. Last but not least, WordPress 3 comes around the corner a couple of times, discussing all the cool new features in it (like author specific templates and background support) and what should and should not be in core, like multi site and multi domain settings.