WordCamp Harare 2016

I’d like to talk on how to make WordPress fly on the various different levels available to you, from right down as simple as basic steps to take within WordPress or as advanced as server tweaks, will use my time hosting Techzim as a case study example

When one creates a website for a client the work is not done – websites get hacked, plugins and themes are not all compatible, and users do stupid things that break their sites. A responsible website developer has to provide ongoing support to make sure their clients’ sites stay up an running.

This can take up a lot of time that could be spent getting new clients and building new sites. But one can significantly reduce the time spent in support over the lifetime of a site by spending a little time educating one’s clients right at the start.

This talk will look at five of the most common issues/questions about which we can educate users so they don’t need to ask for support quite as often.

As a WooCommerce Happiness Engineer, I’ve worked with WooCommerce stores for over two years. However, only in October of this year did I create a live WooCommerce store with physical products for the first time.

In this talk, I’ll focus on the challenges in setting up a WooCommerce store in Africa, but also on its potential and quick wins. I’ll share my experiences with handing over the project to the store owner and give some tips on setting boundaries.

By the end of the talk, you should have a good overview of the considerations when starting a WooCommerce project, especially in making sure that you can hand over to your client smoothly.

One of the main strengths of WordPress CMS is SEO. Its has Search Engine friendly code and naturally it will do well.

SEO is a big player in Online Marketing and is very relevant in Zimbabwe (three cases studies of real websites).

I intend to inspire people to think about SEO and show the community how easy it can be achieved using free and paid tools in WordPress.

I will be going through the essential aspects of being a freelance web developer/designer in Zimbabwe covering the following subtopics:

• getting started
• having things in order – incorporation, taxes, legal docs
• getting the right workflow
• branding
• misc

I would like to talk about web design and how to make anyone’s WordPress sites stand out from the rest by using following a set of design principles that create a unique UI that promotes the content and a UX that makes the viewer want to come back.

I will give a brief introduction to the Git Version Control System (VCS). Short demonstration of using git with WordPress. The demo will be for coding a theme or child theme. Then advantages and disadvantages of using a VCS. Lastly, other WordPress tips and tricks and Q&A at the end.

Beginning of this year I honestly wouldn’t be able to explain to anyone what WordPress is. I had never used WordPress until pressure mounted on me as an internship student , the company wanted the website up and running within a week. As a student who had told them “I know how to create a website”, I couldn’t give an excuse and there was no way out. Later on that day I researched on the easiest way to make an e-commerce website within a day and I learnt about WordPress. Now I can advertise website design and earn a little extra income and my boss is impressed and still talks about efforts put to meet the website deadline. My boss even offered we come back after school and make systems and another website for their subsidiary company.

Page builder plugins have continued to gain popularity with developers and WordPress users. They are powerful and give the creative freedom that anyone needs when building a site, especially for those that know no code. I would like to talk about some of the ways this power can be harnessed.

Using custom post types effectively. When & how to use them. Best practises for custom post types