Category: Learning From The Community

Lots of people have lots of questions about WordPress.

Sometimes, the answer is quick, and only requires a little bit of direction to get you on the right path.

Enter: Ask Me Anything

Ask Me Anything is a weekly chat session that will take place every Wednesday at 7PM Eastern using both the TeamTalk conferencing system and the hashtag #wpama on Twitter. The server address for TeamTalk is 4.onj.me, the ports are 10334, and Ask Me Anything will take place in the “Ask Me Anything” channel. You can ask me anything on the following topics:

• General WordPress setup and configuration
• The Genesis framework and StudioPress child themes
• WordPress.com
• Finding the right WordPress plugin to meet your needs
• Finding the right WordPress theme for your site
• Finding the right hosting
• General hosting questions
• Finding the right domain for your site
• Web accessibility

What’s Not Included?

There’s only a few things that aren’t included, mainly because they would limit the ability of others to get their questions answered:

• Specific plugin or theme setup/configuration
• Code snippets
• Specific hosting configuration instructions

What’s it going to cost?

The only thing Ask Me Anything is going to cost you is the time it takes to ask your question and the time it takes to answer it. Other than time, it’s completely free.

What if I can’t make it for the live sessions?

If you can’t make it for the live sessions, no worries. Each Friday, the session notes wil be posted with links to participants’ websites if they exist. Plus, any questions we can’t get to during the sessions will be posted as free tips/tutorials on this site that you’ll be able to browse through and implement when you have the time.

How long will AMA sessions last?

AMA will last one hour each week, and I’ll answer as many questions as I can get to. Any questions I don’t get to will be answered in upcoming sessions.

Can I ask questions outside AMA?

Yes, you can. Just use the #wpama hashtag and I’ll answer your questions during AMA sessions.

I’m looking forward to sharing knowledge with you during Ask Me Anything. Let’s make this fun, informative and engaging together. Until Wednesday.

This lightning talk was given at WordCamp San Francisco last year. I’m sharing it because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who’s a raging perfectionist, and I also know that I’ve had some ideas or even just things to say that I’ve left unexecuted or unsaid because I didn’t think they were good enough, and we all need a reminder not to let that happen. The takeaway from this talk is to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We all tend to be the most critical of ourselves, and if we let whatever we’re working on or want to work on not make it to the light of day because it’s not perfect, then we’re missing opportunities to help ourselves and more importantly, to help others.

Just pressing publish, (writing something and getting it out there, shipping a personal or client project, or just reaching out to someone we’ve never talked to before), doesn’t mean we won’t fail. But it also means if we don’t publish, we won’t succeed either. So don’t let “it’s not good enough” determine whether something you’ve created gets out there.

This talk was given at WordCamp DFW by Kirk Bowman of The Art of Value. It puts forward a ton of practical steps to help you move from hourly billing (which creates a conflict between you and your customer) to value-based pricing. As a side note, the projector happened to not be working, so the talk included lots of descriptions of what would have been completely visual material if the slides had been available at the time.

If you’re interested in learning more about value-based pricing, there’s also a podcast at The Art of Value that is devoted to the topic.

This talk was given as part of a series of lightning talks at WordCamp San Francisco. Lightning talks were grouped in threes, and dealt with a particular topic, with each presenter spending five minutes elaborating on the theme that tied the session together. The above talk was given by Jennifer Bourn, who has also provided the slides and some deeper thoughts to go along with them.

Most of what’s covered here applies just as much to developers and implementers as it does to designers. We have to approach it a little differently, (we as developers, for example, can’t just tell our clients that this is bad code and shouldn’t be used, even though that is a factor), but these are still good principles to use when communicating with clients so that projects go smoothly and everybody is satisfied with the final outcome.

I was talking to my Mom while I was at WordCamp San Francisco, trying to explain what WordCamp and WordPress are in non-technical terms. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that not everybody’s a nerd. Here’s a non-tech wrap-up of what WordCamp is, and what WordPress is. This recap focuses more on the blogging track that took place on Sunday but gives a good overview of the whole thing.

The second day of WordCamp San Francisco was focused on two things: Blogging and contributing to WordPress. As part of the blogging track, Chris Lema gave a talk on how to build your brand with a blog. He’s shared the slides on his site, (which, if you’re not reading, you should be), and he’s also provided an accessible, text-only summary of the slides that made up his presentation. It’s some of the best blogging advice you’ll read when it comes to using your blog to further your business goals.

I was pleasantly surprised to watch as Chris did a sound check before his talk. I think his might have been the only talk before which that happened. That demonstrates attention to detail and is a real mark of professionalism.