Today starts Season 2 of our podcast. And we are excited to say the least because it also begins with a new partner. Bluehost has stepped up to the plate to sponsor both our regular Wednesday shows and our series for the next season (six-months). To kick it off the right way, Casey Rowland, Marketing Director for Bluehost, joins us today. Listen in as he shares with us the history of Bluehost, their involvement with WordPress and eCommerce, and what the future holds for them in the WordPress open source community.

Also, stick around till the end to hear what we have lined up for the next six months on our in-depth series each Monday.

We chatted about:

* The history of Bluehost: how and where it all started

* How WordPress played into their history and influenced their involvement

* What Bluehost brings to their customers around the eCommerce space

* Some of the exciting things coming to Bluehost in the next year

* How WordPress is becoming an even bigger part of the future for Bluehost

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: WordPress eCommerce Show Epsiode 51 Transcript for February 15 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is a huge day for our podcast in a couple of very exciting ways. First, it’s the start of Season 2. Now, you may be wondering why we’re starting Season 2 a little earlier than when we first started this podcast last March, but our second big announcement will explain that more.

What is really, really, exciting is that our friends over at Bluehost have stepped up to sponsor the next six months of the WP eCommerce Show, and I’m talking not only about our regular Wednesday show, but also our Monday series. I’ll be sharing with you a bit at the end on what you can expect from that. You’re going to see a lot of content coming your way twice a week, at least for the next six months, and to celebrate this partnership, I’m lucky to have Casey Rowland, Marketing Director at Bluehost, on our show today to kick it off. Hey, Casey. Welcome to the show.

Casey Rowland: Hey, Bob. Great to be here.

Meet Casey Rowland, Marketing Director at Bluehost

Bob Dunn: Now, unless you live in a cave or somewhere else very remote—and I’m not talking about Casey, I’m talking about you, our listeners— I’m sure you’ve heard of Bluehost. What I’d like to do is have Casey introduce himself and give us some insight into why Bluehost believes in the power of the web.

Casey Rowland: Oh, for sure, so thanks for the great introduction, Bob. I am Casey Rowland, the Marketing Director here at Bluehost.  Bluehost has really believed in the web and the power of the web since the company’s inception back in 2003. One of the reasons we got started as a company was to give people the power to get their voice out onto the internet. We started in late 2003. It’s super-disruptive, the way that we’ve kind of changed the industry by offering free hosting for advertisements based within people’s websites, and we quickly changed after that to a paid service. As we changed and pivoted into a paid service, we became more and more focused on open source and giving back t...