WPwatercooler - Weekly WordPress Talk Show

This week on WPwatercooler we are the upcoming and recent WordCamps: San Diego, Atlanta, Miami and Reno.We will be talking with various speakers from the event and get some insight into their talk topics.  

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This week on WPwatercooler we are talking about what are some of the criteria to look for in picking a “business theme” for you next business related website. [LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”picking-your-money-maker-theme-5-513d3902f2a5b” show_gravatar=”true”] Jason introduces the business theme topic. Chris calls out Steve for being skeptical about the topic. A few OC-ValleyGirl side comments ensue. Steve declares that every theme is a business theme, because every website has a purpose, depending on the business. Richard says there is a major difference between business themes and personal themes. He says personal themes are “blogs, people, comment, conversation”, whereas things like user comments may not be front and center, might focus on calls to action and focuses on making money rather than being a “rage face” site, that business websites focus more on being a CMS rather than a blog. Sé asks “how is that necessarily related to the theme rather than the content?” Richard agrees, but says you have to have the right layout. He says business themes have calls to action, testimonials, contact pages, Sé says those things are all content-related. Jason says that you need to have areas available to put in your content easily and that newbies will struggle with where to put things. Jason asks “what's a good way to start off and what criteria should people be looking for? Sé says “setting your static front page!” and then says we can all now go home. Richard concedes, it all depends on the business and what you're trying to do with the site. Julie says people get hung up on the “pretties”, i.e. the colors, the fonts, and not the functionality and if it can do what it needs to do. Steve agrees, that is a pitfall, people back their content into their theme, rather than having form follow function. He then asks Richard, “what if your business is a blog?” Richard says you have to look at how you're monetizing that blog, whether that is ad placement, referrals, etc. and that you can't rely on every theme to have a perfect match. Sé says it is about what plugins you're using, and that any theme can be used for a business site if the objective of the site has been mapped out. It then becomes about what you add on to make it a full-featured business site, which comes back to “Should functionality go in a theme or should it go in a plugin?” Chris says we know the answer: Functionality goes into themes. In reference to having ads onsite, he says non-sponsor AdSanity by PixelJar is the best ad management plugin. Sé says that themes that are trying to fit all of the functionality into the theme contribute to the breakdown of WordPress becoming difficult to use, and that stripped-down themes are better. Chris says customers that go to ThemeForest and decide they want a specific theme often don't have content and even a perfect theme won't look anything like the demo without content. Suzette says she spends a lot of time with ThemeForest themes making small tweaks. Everyone agrees. Sé comments that many themes are locked down and small tweaks are very difficult to make. Patrick agrees, says making tiny change takes a long time. He mentions that WooThemes WooFeatures and WooTestimonials are great plugins. Steve mentions WooCommerce. Sé mentions Testmonials Widget. Suzette asks if Testimonials Widget can be used with Custom Post Types, Steve says it creates a Custom Post Type. Sé says something like that can help make even a default theme like twenty twelve into a business theme, while keeping things simple. Julie says often more complex themes can break plugins, so starting with a streamlined theme allows for plugins and features to be swapped out later on. Steve says _s is the best business theme. Sé agrees,

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Today's topic is One blog or multiple? The topic was suggested to us by Chris Lema. On this episode of WPwatercooler we are talking about if you should have two sites (with personal and business content on each) or just one (with both on it). Live stream starts at 11am PST Monday March 4 2013. [LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”ep24-one-blog-or-multiple-wpwatercooler-march-4-2013-5-5133d428c21cc” show_gravatar=”true”]

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Today's topic is How did you get started in WordPress web development? The topic was suggested to us by our own Suzette Franck. On this episode of WPwatercooler we are talking about How did you get started in WordPress web development? If you ever wanted to know how your fellow web developers got into WordPress web development now is your chance to hear their story. Live stream starts Monday at 11am PST. Suzette Franck- She started in 1995 and discovered the internet and was fascinated with the internet. She taught herself html and started creating websites for her friends. Shipping ahead 15 year later she had a gallery client that was using blogspot and setup WordPress. She had a record company client that she used WordPress for, and she and her client really loved it. She was able to put together a website quickly vis using Homesite with tables and dealing with all of that yucky stuff. Steve gets nostalgic and started talking about table padding and table spacing. Se got into the discussion and mentions Tables Reloaded that was recently renamed TablePress. Steve Zehngut – Steve got into the business in 1991 or 1992 programming in Director and picked up Flash in 1998. Zeek became a full service web shop in 2000 and started using custom CMS's. They picked up a Mombo project in 2002 for Fox reality channel. He got into WordPress because of the political clients that he was building websites for. He asked a friend if he should have used MovableType or WordPress, he picked WordPress. Jason reminisces and talks about Mambo and hated it. Dustin Filippini – Started in late 1990's in highschool and helped his friends on the side. Dustin went full time 2 years ago as a WordPress developer. He tried Drupal and got into WordPress back in 1.5. Dave Jesch – Dave started in 1979-1980 on IBM's building shrink wrap software. In 2008 or 2009 he built a dog rescue site using PHP. He did a little bit of work with Drupal, OSCommerce and a few other packages. His wife was taking a class in social media and was introduced to WordPress. Dave picked it up and started to extend it and started to build ecommerce sites using it. He loves working with SQL, jQuery and Ajax. Lucy Beer – She doesn't call her self a hardcode developer, but she comes from a marketing background. She spent 8-10 years doing marketing for bands. She started with Blogger and quickly realized the limitations. She discovered WordPress back in 2004 and transitioned from marketing to training people how to use WordPress. She wanted to make WordPress do more, so she learned a bit of PHP and CSS along with theme development and tweaking code. Jason asked about that transition, she says it took her about a year of transition, and she already had the marketing knowhow so when customers need that she has it. Patrick Rauland – He fell into it on accident and took on a role as a Student Web Developer at the local university and after college and started with a company that did straight PHP development. He talks about having to build login forms over and over again and saw that a CMS would be the way to go. He tried Joomla, Drupal and landed on WordPress and started working with it. Jason asked if someone is starting with WordPress as a developer what should their approach be? Patrick responded in that he started with a CS background, and he liked to build things the way he liked it. WordPress gets you 95% there, and that you just need to find the right plugins to fit the need. Steve says “Don't fight with core”. Se says that there is a bit of lazyness that occurs. Patrick says that he agrees and that hooks and filters are where you can get more into that. The core of the product is done you are just adding on to it. Se talks about using plugins like Cyle2 and Soliloquy. Steve talks about the merits of learning PHP as a way to get into Word...

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Today's topic is website support services. On this episode we are joined with: [LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”ep21-support-services-wpwatercooler-february-11-2013-5-51187385bb243″ show_gravatar=”true”]

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On this episode of WPwatercooler we are talking about Value-based Pricing when it comes to website design and development using WordPress. On this episode we're joined with: [LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”ep19-value-based-pricing-wpwatercooler-february-4-2013-5-510c2ea341796″ show_gravatar=”true”]

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This episode of WPwatercooler we are talking about our favorite IDE (Integrated Development Environment) or Text Editors for WordPress Web Development. On this episode we're joined with: [LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”wpwatercooler-live-stream-mondays-at-1100am-pst-5-508b84080dbf3″ show_gravatar=”true”]

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This episode of WPwatercooler we will be recapping WordCamp Phoenix, our involvement in the camp and the topics some of our regulars of the show spoke about during their talks at the camp. We'll also be speaking with Carol Stambaugh Organizer of the camp and asking her how her first real night of stress-free sleep went last night. On this episode we're joined with: [LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”wpwatercooler-live-stream-mondays-at-1100am-pst-5-508b84080d088″ show_gravatar=”true”]

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This episode of WPwatercooler we will be discussing WordCamp Phoenix, WPwatercooler's involvement in the camp and the topics some of our regulars of the show will be speaking about during their talks at the camp. Friday: Suzette Franck – Hosting and Domains Sé Reed – Installing WordPress Chris Lema – Themes Suzette Franck – Plugins Saturday: Dre Armeda – How Anyone Can Hack Your WordPress Site In Less Than 5 Minutes And What You Can Do To Prevent It Cody Landefield – WordPress Design for the Real World Sunday: Chris Lema Success in Distributed Contexts (Distributed Workforce) Jason Tucker – How to Stream a Meetup or Live Event Sé Reed – Developing Impactful Websites for Small Businesses   On this episode we're joined with: [LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”episode-17-wordcamp-phoenix-2013-5-50f2df0c5d7f1″ show_gravatar=”true”] WPwatercooler will be streaming at multiple times during WordCamp Phoenix, a schedule will be posted on WPwatercooler.com and on WordCamp Phoenix's website. We'd like to welcome you to join in with us on Friday, Saturday and on Sunday. Expect from posts, tweets and such from us in the next couple of days regarding WPwatercooler taking it on the road at WordCamp Phoenix.    

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“WordPress Web Trends for 2013” we are joined with Suzette Franck, Elizabeth Shilling, Sé Reed, Steve Zehngut, Jon Brown, Dave Jesch, Chris Lema and out host Jason Tucker. Recording starts at 11:00am PST on Mondays. Might be a little difficult to talk about… Alex has nice hair. Pasadena WordPress Meetup 1/29th. Talking about the latest and greatest in WordPress. Jason brings up the revamp of working with Post Format UI. Post formats is a way to add image, video,etc to posts. Alex asks how many really use post formats with projects working on. Steve discusses what it currently offers. Jason mentions that your looking to do custom post type with post formats mix together. Steve agrees he that he would want that. Sé realizes that you can't do that, expand post formats. Sé asks, “Why not make your own custom post type?” Steve explains how they work differently; post format is basically a display mechanism. It's a different way to templating. You could use custom post types for the way he's using them, but then you get extra tabs. Se asks if you can do custom post types and custom formats for the custom post types? You can do them now, Steve informs; can't expand post formats. Post formats and post custom types are two different things. Chris would give a great explanation if he were here. Sé brings up Chris' blog post that sparked a conversation about WordPress as a web application platform. Jason mentions how WordPress is being used more and more for an application environment. Sé mentions how it's funny they say you shouldn't be doing something that you are already doing. Mentioned how Matt Mullenweg wants WordPress it move toward an application environment and app themes. Steve brings it back to post formats. He compares it to Tumblr and based around content; what they are for. They are meant to change the display of the post within your theme. Post format can be applied to custom post types; like a custom post type event and a post format around that event would be image. Alex adds that Tumblr eclipsed blog as a search term. Sé suggests that maybe everyone figured out what blog already meant and are trying to figure out what Tumblr is. Steve mentions that Tumblr is a competitor of WordPress. Sé mentions how limited Tumblr is. Steve agrees that it was a bold statement. WordPress is a platform and Tumblr is not. Jason adds that you can't open an ecommerce solution on Tumblr. Sé mentions how all you can do is blog on Tumblr. It makes sense to say that Tumblr shouldn't become a solution environment, whereas WordPress has been so much more than just even a content management system. Steve mentions that Tumblr is a more of a competitor for WordPress.com. Tumblr a better comparison to Tumblr is an Instagram. Wes asks about making any money setting up Tumblr. Sé mentions maybe for training. Steve mentions how he uses it for his clients and how it may meet their needs; basically ease of use. Jason suggests the possibility of making something in WordPress with Tumblr capabilites for clients and if that what Steve does? Steve shares his solution.

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