WordCamp Asheville 2018

We all like to learn some handy tips and tricks, right? How about a huge list of all the ways I have personally improved my workflows, processes, production quality, and even lifestyle?

I’ve been building WordPress sites, working remotely, and generally doing all things WordPress for years now and I’ve discovered a whole lot of cool stuff in that time.

Come see the curtain get pulled back and learn which tools I value the most and the good habits I’ve developed which have made the biggest impact on my life.

Takeaways:

• Shiny object syndrome is real!
• Save time by attending this presentation to hear what tools work in the day to day of running my WordPress business.

I will discuss how to secure your 2nd client using three techniques: your family/friend, your 1st client, and the WordPress Community.

Takeaways:

• How to secure clients
• Ways to grow your business
• Take some of the stress out of getting more clients

With GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) now in effect, what does this mean for your site? Is the GDPR law geographically limited? Sam brings his 20 years of cybersecurity experience to discuss how you can protect your client data, what to do in the event of a data breach, and how you can prevent one. We’ll answer your questions and more including how your plugin choices can affect GDPR compliance.

Takeaways:

• What is the General Data Protection Regulation?
• Does it affect us in the US?
• Learn how to become compliant.

Have you ever launched a website only to return to find some annoying SEO has come after you and destroyed it? Has some obnoxious marketer bugged you for lots of little changes- outside the client’s scope and budget?

I’m sorry. That might have been my fault.

Let’s work together to help our clients. I’ll share my secrets on setting up a WordPress site for SEO success. While this won’t guarantee SEO results, but it will set up your clients for optimal Google love.

Do you constantly feel like you are hacking code together? Do you find it difficult to maintain, adapt or even read code you’ve written previously? Chances are, you are not taking into consideration some of the basic principles of software architecture. Come learn how some simple habits and changes in perspective can transform you from a 1x developer to a 10x developer!

Takeaways:

• How to keep your code simple and straightforward
• How to reduce bugs in your code
• How to become a more productive developer

As someone who builds WordPress websites for clients, you’ve probably learned that offering (or requiring) monthly maintenance contracts is smart business. It’s likely you’re including core software, plugin and theme updates as part of your maintenance plan, which ensures a steady income stream you can rely on and helps with your financial forecasting. But are you including website security as part of your project proposal and scope?

The security of your clients’ websites is often not a priority or is left till the end of a project (or sale?) as an optional add-on for the client to consider after going live. The value of a strong website security posture can be difficult to explain to clients, but when put in the context of their business and possible loss of revenue, it can become an integral part of your offering that separates you from the rest.

In this session, Adam will cover simple website security best practices that you can implement immediately for your own site and those of your clients. In addition, he’ll also offer advice and examples on how to best present the importance of website security during the proposal, scope, and maintenance package stages to your clients. Not only does this ensure your maintenance plans offer what every website needs, but also presents an additional revenue stream opportunity for your business.

Takeaways:

• Learn why including security in your client discussions is essential to growing your business.
• Learn how to break down the seemingly complex subject into bite-size nuggets to communicate the importance of security in terms your clients can understand.
• Learn the simple security best practices that every website owner should employ.”

What makes a logo effective on the web and in print? I’ll share tips for logo creation, color and typography selection, placement and more to make your brand work better online and elsewhere.

Takeaways:

• Whether you design the logo for a client website or are give the logo files, this seminar will help you determine how to effectively communicate your brand, maximize your logo elements, and avoid mistakes that can dilute your brand and diminish the logo.

Slides (PDF)

Slides (PPT)

Whether it’s form or order notifications, marketing emails or newsletters, websites send email to us and our visitors. These messages are important for conducting any kind of business online. You don’t have to be a server admin to make sure your websites’ emails get delivered! Understanding a few basics will give you the tools to setup and troubleshoot all manner of email communication from your WordPress website.

Takeaways:

• How email and the WordPress email function work in non-technical terms.
• Correct settings for outgoing email messages.
• Email escalation – when and how to use SMTP services and plugins.

This session will provide actionable steps for implementing some proven (and easy) project management techniques to stop the dreaded “scope creep” that so many WordPress practitioners struggle with when providing services for others.

Takeaways:

• The 6 Principles of Productivity Management You Knew and Then Forgot
• What to Put in the Contract so You Get Paid for Change
• How to Effectively Manage Change

The purpose of this talk is to discuss potential events, situations, and problems that can arise when clients come into contact with WordPress and the best practices to overcome those issues. Additionally, it would cover how to ‘user-proof’ your site to help minimize client-caused damage. Learn how to properly address and handle client complaints and problems.

Takeaways:

• Learn how to explore and identify various site issues.
• Learn how to minimize potential issues caused by clients.

The murmuring about CSS Grid in the world of frontend development has gotten quite loud indeed. If you’ve been a developer awhile, you remember when CSS finally became powerful enough to overtake the almighty table. You probably also really love the incredible tool that is Flexbox, even if you, like I do, still need to reference the same darn CSS Tricks article every time you use it. So what’s Grid’s deal? What makes it so great anyway, and when can you start using it IRL? What if you don’t want to duplicate development, building complex fallbacks for legacy browsers? How do you decide if a project is a good fit for CSS Grid, and then how do you even get started? We’ll discuss these questions, review some tools and tricks, and look at a few examples of CSS Grid in action.

Takeaways:

• Using CSS Grid
• Recognizing when CSS Grid is a good fit
• Fallbacks /Supporting old browsers

Frustrated with trying to make a living building WordPress websites? Think you just need to find the right theme for a project or learn a few more design tips? You’re not alone. This presentation will show you why it’s easy to get stuck and hard to get out of the Bermuda Triangle of Web Designer’s Hell – that place where you don’t know what you don’t know.

I’ll present a framework of seven core competencies to provide a foundation for becoming a skilled WordPress Designer who can price, close, create, and deliver effective WordPress websites for happy clients!

Takeaways:

• Why you may be stuck.
• The biggest mistake of broke web designers.
• The Seven Core Competency Framework for becoming a Master Web Designer.

We all want to engage website visitors, bring them value and maybe even convert them into paying customers. I know I want to do all three! But if you don’t know who the people visiting your website are or what they really want, how can you do any of this? I want to give you some actionable tips and tools that will shed some light on who’s visiting your website and allow you to get the feedback you need to turn your site into something your visitors can’t get enough of 🙂

Takeaways:

• Using Google Analytics to get visitor data
• Using Hotjar to get visitor data
• How to use that data to dictate your marketing strategy

Sales is all about relationships and managing expectations. We are all in sales, where we realize or not, like it or not. I’ll share some personal story around my start as an introverted artists and designer who was socially awkward and how I overcame that to become a top producing salesperson. How not being a salesperson can be your strongest asset in actually making sales, if you find your authentic voice, know your craft and get interested in the art and science of creative communication and psychology.

Though I have a framework for this including practical scenarios, it will be somewhat interactive and focus driven by preferences of those in attendance. We’ll be looking at the why behind methods from which you can build on. The first step is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. We’ll do some of that, but I promise not to make it too scary.

This is not a talk about funnels, prospects, conversions and the like though that all is super important and we’ll touch on it. This is focused on communication tools and self work to overcome your internal roadblocks.

Takeaways:

• You’ll get a copy of the slide deck to include a list of common sales and communications “challenges” and how to deal with them.
• A process map of the anatomy stages of a sales cycle, (what to communicate when, how and why) specifically tailored to creative work.
• Some basic personality assessment tools to clarify your personality and communication style, how to identify your clients and then how to adapt accordingly.

I’d like to do a talk about how I started, built, and grew my own WordPress agency. Unity is a completely bootstrapped business (no startup funding) that I founded in 2016. Since then, I’ve grown the business to 4 full-time employees. At the beginning of 2018, we became a Certified B Corp.

In this presentation I’ll take a deep dive into my preferred development and deployment workflow. I’ll cover how to work with code quality tools such as PHPMD, PHP_CodeSniffer and JSLint, as well as how to implement Test Driven Development into a custom plugin. I’ll wrap the whole thing up by demonstrating how to connect everything to a continuous integration / delivery pipelines to test the code and deploy automatically.

Takeaways:

• Code Quality
• TDD
• CI/CD

The number one complaint we hear about web designers and agencies is poor customer service. Poor communication, ambiguous expectations, and missed deadlines frustrate clients and often deliver a disappointing finished product. Service is what sets you apart as an agency. You can have incredible design work and create innovative functionality, but if your clients don’t like you, they’ll leave. And it’s about much more than getting your clients to like you: it’s about listening to your clients so that you offer a solution that actually solves their problems; it’s about knowing when to push back and when to concede; and it’s about being honest and transparent even in the face of failure. When you provide service that meets these criteria, you produce clients that advocate for your business and stay around for the long haul.

Takeaways:

•  Web designers and agencies have a reputation for providing poor customer service. If you don’t recognize this problem and try to address it through the services you provide, you’re going to lose business and drive customers away.
• Practical strategies and tips for providing great customer service during every stage of the project, from the initial sales meeting to the website launch and even beyond. These can apply to freelancers, full agencies, and anything inbetween.
• How providing great customer service can help you retain current clients and gain new ones.

Sometimes, it’s easier to edit something in the database than use the dashboard. BUT only if you know what you are doing!

Come learn about the database that powers WordPress and how you can use it to your advantage.

Takeaways:

• How is the WordPress database structured
• How to change your password without logging into your site
• What you can change about your site from the database and how

Gutenberg is the new WordPress editor.

We’ve heard “Gutenberg is coming!” for a long time now. It might even be here by the time we are together in Asheville.

This will give you an introduction to what the Gutenberg editor looks like and how to use it to create and edit your WordPress content.

Takeaways:

• What’s different about using the Gutenberg editor?
• How to edit content using the Gutenberg editor
• How and when to use the classic editor after Gutenberg arrives

You’ve spent hours (maybe months) creating a gorgeous website or maybe you paid someone else to design it for you, but what’s next? How do you consistently add content to your site?

Learn tips and hacks to use video to create content for your blog, social media, newsletters and much more. Never run out of content again!

Takeaways:

• Tips to Create a Marketing Calendar
• Why and How to Transcribe Your Videos
• How to Incorporate Video into Your Blog

Whether you want your website to build a community, build your reputation, or build your bank account, you need to have a well defined sales strategy in place. Dynamic sales funnels aren’t just for “get rich quick” schemes or talking heads, they are a crucial component of helping you to reach the goals you set for your online presence, regardless of your industry or focus. In addition, incorporating multimedia, social engagement tools, and interactive resources will extend the length of your funnel by fostering more long-term relationships with your clientele.

Takeaways:

• Diagram the main components of your Sales Funnel
• Identify top priority Plugins & Tools to build your Funnel
• Draft your Sales Strategy Roadmap

A discussion on the best practices for creating a well designed responsive theme on WordPress.

Takeaways:

• Key elements that make a beautiful responsive design.
• How to choose the best responsive theme for you.
• Best practices for managing logos, photos, colors, patterns and font styles on WordPress.  “

Search engines are always changing, just like other kinds of technology. Keyword content and architecture is important for any website, but that’s not all you have to do in order to increase your authority, credibility, and rankings. Come find out what the search engines want in 2018 and how you can leverage your WordPress website to create content that matters and has an impact.

Takeaways:

• Tips for link building
• Best practices for website usability
• Local SEO tips

The lecture will cover how to get your sites current page speed score, how to optimize it for faster load times, and why its important. We will examine multiple testing services, WordPress optimization addon’s both free and paid, and web hosts.

Takeaways:

• How to test your sites page speed.
• Image & Plugin optimization.
• Why page speed is important.

Learn how to handle a hacked website in a moment of crisis.

A building has an evacuation plan. A website needs a security and disaster recovery plan.

Takeaways:

• Who should I call if I’m hacked?
• What should I do if I’m hacked?
• How do I ensure this doesn’t happen again?
• What needs to be in your plan
• Risks and damages hacking has on your organization
• Incident Response Plan

In this talk, we’ll dip our toes into the relatively new javascript framework called Vue.js. We’ll go over how to integrate Vue.js into a custom theme and use WordPress as the backend that powers a simple directory with an ajax search feature and Google Maps. We’ll cover a few basic concepts of Vue and why it can be a nice alternative to using jQuery.

Takeaways:

• You’ll know what Vue.js is!
• You’ll have a basic understanding of how to get started with Vue.
• You’ll see how to use the WordPress API in order to use that data with Vue.js

This talk is specifically designed to explain how to use WordPress in order to create transformational relationships between your product and service with your customer. This talk will specifically focus on tools within WordPress that make it easier for WordPress users to send their customers on a journey where the customers use their products or services in order to transform their lives.

Takeaways:

• What is a transformational transaction?
• How does this type of transaction inform and engage your audience?
• Why is this vital to online conversions?

This is a completely updated version of the talk given at WordCamp Asheville 2015, modified to reflect the massive changes in local SEO in the past three years. Learn how local search engine optimization (SEO) differs from traditional SEO, and why it is so important to local businesses. I’ll outline the key components of local SEO and explain how you can use your WordPress site to strengthen each of them.

Takeaways:

• Why many consider Google to be the new home page for your business
• How to get reviews
• How local SEO differs from traditional website SEO

I have been a freelance php/wordpress programmer for many years. The freelance world can be an exciting life of waking up unemployed every morning, having a different view every week, and finding interesting clients.

I currently run a 6-figure WordPress business with 20 team members from my RV while traveling the US. I am in a different location almost every week.

I will talk about the ups and downs of life on the road, finding clients, mixing fun, travel and code, how we get paid, and much more.

Takeaways:

• How to take your business on the road,
• How to work with remote contractors
• How to survive as a freelance WordPress developer.