WordCamp Detroit 2012

Developing plugins and themes for WordPress often comes with the daunting task of creating management and option interfaces for the WordPress user.  The good thing for you is most of the heavy lifting is already done for you.  Learn how to use popular CSS classes and javascript libraries that are already included in WordPress as you create option pages for your plugins and themes.  We’ll take a look at create tables, forms, buttons, and more for your admin pages.

Google Analytics puts so much traffic data in front of you, as a website owner, and it can be overwhelming. After all, the idea is to use that data to improve the performance of your site. At the same time, how do you know where to begin? We’ll discuss the options for implementing Google Analytics into your WordPress site and where to focus your attention to get the most out of the traffic numbers it makes available to you. If you want to understand bounce rate, landing pages, exit pages, visitor loyalty and what these terms mean to you and your blog, you’ll want to join us. The data tells a story if you know how to follow the plot.

A high traffic WordPress website needed my help, and we came to their
rescue. After some weeks of pain, dodged bullets, and brutal lessons
learned we got it running nice and smoothly. Here’s what I learned,
and most importantly, what we’re doing in Ubuntu to make it so you
never have to go through the pain of scaling a WordPress blog.

This talk will cover cloud providers and how they differ, using a
content delivery network, WordPress caching and load balancing
configurations, and more importantly, how to measure all of it to
ensure that you’re getting the most out of your setup without wasting
money. This talk will also glaze over some of the service
orchestration tools in Ubuntu that will allow for a really elastic
WordPress installation that can grow with you.

The Ann Arbor Chronicle provides the sole livelihood for its two owners, and a partial livelihood for a half dozen free-lance writers. So it’s crucial that the WordPress platform delivers what’s asked. Mostly that means folks at the Chronicle want to spend as little time as possible thinking about WordPress. In his talk, Chronicle editor Dave Askins highlights features of The Chronicle that he spends little time thinking about, and most of his time simply using – because the website runs on WordPress.

You may not call yourself a “blogger,” but if you’re a business owner, you are missing a huge opportunity to connect with your customers if you’re not blogging. We’re in the age of Content Marketing, where our customers expect us to demonstrate our value by sharing a bit of who we are and what we do long before we expect our customers to buy from us.

Join us for a discussion that explains the true role a blog plays in building your business, some best practices for business blogging, and some tips for attracting and keeping ideal customers through your blog.

In this advanced development session we will review how to create structured data for your WordPress website by using Custom Post Types, Custom Taxonomies, and Custom Fields.
This session will include pointers on:

• When to use custom post types vs. post formats
• How to set up custom post types in code as well as with a plugin.
• How and when to use custom taxonomies
• When to use custom fields and how to set them up

We will also be looking at several examples of sites that are using the 3Cs to create structured data.

320px and Up – Responsive Web Design, what is it, the benefits, a background on it, how to get started, and things to watch out for while developing sites that work on any mobile phone, tablet, desktop, and more.

The WordPress landscape can be a difficult learning environment packed with perils and pitfalls. This field guide includes helpful tips from a seasoned WordPress veteran backed by experience and research. Learn theme and plugin evaluation processes, WordPress best practices and workflow strategies. This guide also includes a list of essential skills, the community, and upcoming WP developer trends all to make your journey a more pleasant experience.

Organic search traffic is a marketer’s dream. These are customers who are actively looking for what you have to sell–all you have to do is wave your arms and get their attention. Best of all, it’s free of direct cost and completely trackable. Yet, few industries face more misconceptions than search engine optimization. This presentation will equip you with the basics, best practices, essential plugins and further knowledge to help you increase your organic traffic and conversions.

In addition to the freedom that WordPress offers to its users, it also offers a great deal of flexibility to its administrators and managers. One of the greatest features of WordPress is the ability to set up a multisite environment that allows you to stand up an entirely new website in a matter of minutes. WordPress Multisite offers you the option to set up new websites using subdomains or subdirectories off of the original installation point. However, through various plugins and configuration settings, you can take it even further than that.

We all know marketing can be very involved. There is so much you need to do: blog, tweet, email, review analytics and so on. It kind of seems like you are totally out of your element, Donnie. At the end of the day, you have to help keep the sales engine warm. Lead generation is the name of the game and WordPress is the rug that “ties the room together”. Hubert Sawyers III will share what complementary services and plugins can make your WordPress site a true lead generation engine.

This talk will review how to optimize lead forms, email marketing and automation systems. Do not expect to hear much code talk. That will not stand, man.

Deploying WordPress sites has been a constant discussion this past year. In this talk we’re going to talk about a Python approach to deploying your site as well as making the process just a little bit easier with a fun little robot named Hubot from Github. We’ll be briefly covering Github/git as our source control, a simple deployment script that Hubot will then use to make the whole deployment process as simple as typing a few commands. Come see another way to deploy your WordPress site!

Learn how free web-based project management tools can improve your blogging workflow, client management and your overall blogging business. Full-time and freelance bloggers need simple solutions to capture ideas, plan a blog calendar and manage all the content creation and content promotion for various brand marketing campaigns. If you are planning content for your own blog or creating content for multiple clients, this session will demonstrate how using FREE project management tools can improve your blogging business and workflow. Learning how to use free project management tools to improve your blogging business is Smart Business!

One of the most intimidating things about getting started with WordPress is learning to use The Loop. Its name can strike fear into the hearts of programmers, both new and old. There are several online tutorials to help programmers utilize The Loop. However, it’s often difficult to gain a full understanding of this concept. This session will help us all face our fears together. I will take you on a journey that will help you learn to love our Loopy friend. By the end of the session, you will have a real understanding on what “The Loop” actually is, what it does, and how amazingly flexible (and magical) it is! This session will change your life and the way you see the world. It will make the majority of your problems fade away. It should open the door to helping make all your dreams come true! If you go to one session at Wordcamp Detroit 2012, make sure it’s this one!