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Open Channels FM episodes

  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In episode 20, Brad Williams and BobWP are joined by Jamie Marsland from Pootlepress.

    In this show, we chat with Jamie about his years experience with WooCommerce, his latest products on the market and WooCommerce blocks, the new editor and page builders.

    Jamie Marsland and Pootlepress

    Jamie started with plugins for WooThemes popular theme Canvas. He’s been involved with WooCommerce from the beginning and has grown his company, Pootlepress, around WooCommerce. In addition, his company has provided training courses in the UK for the past eight years.

    WooCommerce, Blocks and the New Editor

    Jamie introduces us to WooBuilder Blocks, a much-needed approach to creating unique single-product pages in WooCommerce. From there, we talk about the challenges facing blocks and WordPress. This includes the issues many plugin developers experience with the the new phase of blocks, both within WordPress and WooCommerce core, as well as the numerous plugins out there.

    We also touch on the perceptions and use of the new editor in WordPress and how its adaptation is moving along.

    Page Builders and Blocks

    We share our individual thoughts around the idea of the Gutenberg, aka blocks, moving users away from page builders. As someone who has been successful with his own page builder, Pagebuilder Pro, Jamie has his own take on the topic.

    It was interesting because we each had a different take on it and, as Brad said on the show, talk to us again in a year.

    Get in Touch with Jamie

    You can find Jamie on Twitter or check out his site his site, Pootlepress.com, where you will find Storefront Pro and Storefront Blocks. I also suggest you take a look at WooBuilder Pro as it gives you some great options to build out your WooCommerce product page.

    39 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In episode 19, Brad Williams and BobWP are joined by James Kemp from IconicWP.

    In this show, we talk about about his journey with creating plugins and how James landed on IconicWP. We look at the recent acquisition of Prospress from Automattic and chat a bit about the 7-star review feature in a free plugin put out by Liquid Web. Plus more from the eCommerce world.

    James Kemp and IconicWP

    James tells us more about his start selling his plugins on Code Canyon and, after several years, making the decision to move to Freemius. We talk a bit more about his plugins and, specifically, the ones that extend variations, which is a much-used feature of WooCommerce and one that presents specific challenges.

    Automattic Acquires Prospress

    We also chat about the recent acquisition of Prospress by Automattic and agree on what a smart move that was. With their popular Subscriptions extension, as well as their other products, it was a no-brainer. We also send our heartfelt congratulation to Brent and his team there.

    Better Reviews for WooCommerce – 7-Star Ratings

    Next we dive into the free plugin that Liquid Web released called Better Reviews for WooCommerce. We shared our own thoughts about the 7-start review aspect of the plugin as well. If you want to learn more about it and the option of using attributes in the reviews, you can check out our post here.

    Walmart and Target 1st-Quarter Growth in eCommerce

    We ended our show with a couple of articles sharing the eCommerce growth of two of the big shops entering the online arena more strongly than ever, WalMart and

    48 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In episode 18, BobWP and Brad Williams are joined by Cody Landefeld of Mode Effect.

    In this show, we are talking about agency approaches to growing WooCommerce stores, the Storefront theme latest update and WooCommerce meetups.

    An Agency’s Focus

    Our guest Cody Landefeld from Mode Effect shares how he took the approach of finding the right vertical for his agency and what he discovered to be the sweet spot for client work.

    He also gives us some insights on how he built up his credibility and client list by producing consistent and useful content on their website. It’s something some agencies and store owners don’t understand: what strong content can do for the growth of their businesses.

    He then talks about how themes and plugins that are used to start your WooCommerce site are often outgrown yet stay in place to only cause performance issues down the road.

    Storefront Update and Usage

    I share the most recent Storefront theme update and how the cover block brings more design to the homepage. And Cody share his thoughts on Storefront and how he would like to see more WooCommerce store owners making the choice of the standard for WooCommerce themes.

    WooCommerce Meetups

    We swap stories on the successes and struggles of our own WooCommerce meetups. This segment clearly points out that all meetups are not equal.

    Make sure to check out Cody on Twitter and his successful efforts in creating content at Mode Effect.

    And don’t miss WordSesh coming soon to the interwebs!

    41 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In show 17, we go for a different take on things. Brad interviews BobWP on the latest changes on his site.

    Co-host BobWP turns guest as Brad chats with him about his newest project. BobWP.com has officially become All Things WooCommerce, which pretty much sums it up.

    All Things WooCommerce

    This huge project is dissected through the questions from Brad. In a nutshell, BobWP.com is now entirely devoted to WooCommerce. All of the other content has been moved to a new site, WPContentMarketing.com, which focuses on just that, content marketing. Specifically, blogging, monetization, podcasting and writing. This site is currently changing again… you can see what’s going on here.

    We talk about what this kind of endeavor entails. For a teaser, this took analyzing 1,322 pieces of content. Listen in to hear the nitty gritty.

    Talk About a Website Project Fail

    We wrap up the show chatting a bit about an article Brad shared: Hertz hits Accenture with $32 million lawsuit over failed website redesign . If you design sites, whether they are WooCommerce or not, Brad recommends checking out this post to put your life’s work into perspective.

    41 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In episode 16 of the Do the Woo Podcast, Brad and BobWP invite special guest Mario Peshev to talk about his robust endeavors into the world of content creation, and we take a look at some Woo news.

    Mario Peshev – The Reason He Creates So Much Content

    Mario Peshev, when not running his agency Devrix, spends time pushing out tons of content across the web. He has been published on Huffington Post and Entrepreneur, to name just a couple. And he is very active on LinkedIn, Quora and numerous other platforms.

    We start out the conversation learning more about Mario’s passion for sharing his content and what drives him to do it. He shares some very interesting insights around digital content and, specifically, how it plays in the eCommerce space.

    A New Central Dashboard for WooCommerce

    We take a few minutes to look at the new Woocommerce Admin which includes tracking performance with statistics, analytics and reports with 14 unique data points. There are 12 new improved reports and a new activity panel.

    WooCommerce 3.6 and the Marketplace

    Next we chat about the decision that WooCommerce made to pull the suggested plugin feature from the forthcoming update. This article over on WPTavern inspired our conversation.

    Yoast SEO 11.0 Structure Data – Schema

    With the newest release on Yoast SEO came some

    48 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In episode 15 of the Do the Woo Podcast, Brad and BobWP fly solo and dig into some eCommerce news.

    As you can see, this episode is coming out during my 48-Hour WooCommerce content marathon. In a nutshell, 48 posts on Woo, every hour for two days. If you want to see all that was pushed out during that time, you can find the links here.

    There wasn’t a lot of news to share in the WooCommerce space this episode. So we dug into some recent news around the general eCommerce space, chatted about a couple of articles and shared our thoughts and perspectives.

    A look at Instagram’s eCommerce future

    If you use Instagram for your store, or have been considering it, you might want to check this post out. It has some interesting ideas of where Instagram is going. Brad shared some of his thoughts as between the two of us, he uses it more, although for personal use.

    The one interesting fact that I brought up on the show was that Instagram now has 25 million active users. But half of them don’t list a website so that means their efforts are native to Instagram. Mmm. Food for thought, huh?

    Why your eCommerce business needs to start as an affiliate site

    This one hit me a bit more as someone who is very active in the affiliate marketing space, at least in my own efforts.

    And even though there are more businesses than you can imagine that have affiliate programs, I have been seeing this rise to the surface lately. Especially around the subject of influencers.

    Brad and I chat more about this and more about affiliates in general. In fact, the article headline is a bit misleading, so you’ll need to listen in to learn more about that. Or read the article and decide for yourself.

    Other Goodies

    Brad shared about the announcement of this year’s WordSesh, happening May 22, 2019. If you are a WordPress professional, you need to check out this

    38 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In episode 7 of the Do the Woo Podcast, BobWP and Brad talk about:

    • iThemes Multi-Channel Sales add-on for Sales Accelerator
    • New WooCommerce app for Android in Beta
    • Amazon’s Scout

    In episode 7, Brad takes the official name of BradWP and we explore some of the latest WooCommerce and eCommerce news.

    Brad shares that Chris Lema, VP of Products at Liquid Web (our sponsor) will be doing an AMA on the Facebook Group Advanced WordPress. On this, the the largest WordPress group on Facebook, Chris will answer questions about the WooCommerce managed hosting at Liquid Web. This is your chance to get that answer you have been searching for, live on Oct. 1, 2018, 11 am PDT. Get all the details here plus a link to join the group.

    The Multi-Channel Add-On for WooCommerce Sales Accelerator from iThemes

    We start out our Woo coverage with a look at the new add-on, Multi-Channel Sales for Sales Accelerator from iThemes. This will not only be a game-changer for your WooCommerce site, but open up your products to more customers and sales. Currently it work with Amazon and eBay. Without any hassle you are going to be able to sell your WooCommerce products easily on both of those sites. Brad and I dive a bit into the basics, but would suggest that you check the iThemes Sales Accelerator as it opens up a new opportunity for WooCommerce store owners.

    The Official WooCommere Android App in Released in Beta

    This new app is pretty cool and Brad and I find it interesting that it came out for Android before iOS. If you are running Jetpack, the app will track your store, manage orders and give you real-time alerts when you get a new order—or even a product review. You can read the article on WPTavern or check it out over on WooCommerce.

    Amazon Scout

    This is an interesting article on a new design effort over on Amazon. I ran across it while searching for something on Amazon and noticed enough differences to check into more. The

    36 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In episode 6 of the Do the Woo Podcast, BobWP and Brad talk about the:

    • New WooCommerce Managed Hosting Beginner package at Liquid Web
    • Upcoming online conference WooSesh
    • WooCommerce Custom Product Tables Beta— and what it does
    • WooComerce, Gutenberg, and custom blocks
    • Effect the diminishing popularity of Facebook is likely to have on online stores

    In episode 6, we return from a summer hiatus to look at what’s happening in the WooCommerce space.

    WooCommerce Beginner Managed Hosting

    We start with the release of the new entry-level WooCommerce managed hosting from Liquid Web. We look at how this is a great starting point for new WooCommerce stores and explore what you get with the hosting package as well as a few limitations. And the fact that an entry-level WooCommerce hosting like this gives Shopify more competition.

    WooSesh, an Virtual Conference

    We also share some details about the upcoming online conference, WooSesh. Brian Rzen has expanded his popular WordSesh conference, in partnership with Patrick Rauland, has created an impressive online event for site builders and developers. It takes place Oct. 18 and 19 and if you  pre-register, and show up at least for one session, you will get free access to all the session recordings. WooCommerce has stepped up as the sponsor of this event and it looks like it may be a temporary replacement for WooConf. And because it’s online, it’s more accessible to people around the world.

    WooCommerce Custom Product Tables Beta

    Next Brad takes the reins to talk about the WooCommerce Custom Product Tables Beta that was released in July. He explains exactly what it does, why developers should be paying attention to it and why shop owners should make sure that their tech people are on top of it. One of the biggest takeaways is that WooCommerce stores will see faster load times.

    WooCommerce Blocks for Gutenberg
    33 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In this week’s podcast, BobWP and Brad Williams talk about WooCommerce 3.4 and GDPR, Gutenberg blocks for WooCommerce product pages, digital currency and online stores, Stripe Radar and Square Buys Weebly.

    In episode 5 we kick off the next iteration of Do the Woo with my new co-host Brad Williams. Every two weeks, the two of us with be talking about some WooCommerce-specific news and the broader areas of eCommerce that affect WooCommerce store owners.

    This week, we started out by catching up on the looming GDPR and what WooCommerce 3.4 has coming to help store owners comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. As we talked, we agreed that this is not only good for the EU, but for online data protection worldwide. Brad shared that WordPress is also releasing some GDPR integrations in the upcoming 4.9.6.

    We chatted a bit about the Gutenberg blocks and what we might anticipate with WooCommerce products. Although it is going to bring some added options for the average store owner regarding design, as with builders that already exist, there is a fine line between taking advantage of the blocks and abusing them. Store owners will be wise to remember how important that product page still is and how a cluttered or bad design could be a killer when it comes to site conversions.

    Brad shared an article about Coinbase Commerce, a new service that enables merchants to accept cryptocurrencies. This led to the question of when we might see more online stores accepting Bitcoin type currencies and where that might lead into the future.

    Brad also shared some insights on a new service from the payment gateway Stripe. Stripe Radar was built to prevent and reduce credit card fraud. It flags potential chargebacks based on a series of criteria.

    36 min
  • Redirect WooCommerce Customers to a Special Landing Page

    In this podcast, I’ll be talking to Brent about WooCommerce, subscriptions and recurring income. He is the developer behind the subscriptions extension for WooCommerce and I wanted to pick his brain on the industry of eCommerce subscription sites, which have really grown over the years.

    I first had Brent on the BobWP eCommerce Show when it was the Do the Woo podcast, way back in  April of 2016. I started our chat today by asking Brent if much has changed in the subscription space since then.

    Then we touched on recurring income, something a lot of people dream about. I wanted to see if he had insights into anything that that doesn’t work with recurring income or subscriptions. Also, I wanted his thoughts on how to choose between going the monthly or yearly route.

    That led us into community and his thoughts on if you should build your community first or not (and if that depends on your product or service).

    Brent shared some of the use cases he has seen where people used subscriptions uniquely and what he has seen as some very different and, possibly, even odd, ways to use subscriptions.

    Lastly, I gave him the opportunity to share his most recent service called Robot Ninja. If you want peace of mind with your WooCommerce site, so you don’t have to stress about whether the cart or checkout is working, you will need to listen to this and check out his new service.

    You can find Brent:

    Prospress.com

    RobotNinja.com

    Subscriptions Extension on WooCommerce

    Twitter @thenbrent

    36 min

About Open Channels FM

From the publisher's feed

OpenChannels FM is a independently owned and produced podcast where builders, creators, developers, business owners, and community leaders gather to talk about what matters. Across four shows (Open…

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