Resources and lessons for using WordPress in your business

Editor's Notes

• #2: This is kind of like an end of the day bonus.
• #3: I spend most of my time building WordPress themes and plugins. I am a programmer, developer, etc...
• #4: I also fix problems, people come to me with issues and I fix them
• #5: I also figure things out … If someone comes to me with a need for certain functionality or a change to a theme I look for the best possible solution
• #6: I’d like to get an idea of who’s in the room. Who here runs their website on wordpress? Do you consider yourself an advanced user? Intermediate? Beginner? How many people have a custom WordPress theme that was build for you? How many of you have a premium theme or child theme of a premium theme?
• #7: Choosing a WordPress theme is hard. To complicate matters, choosing between a premium theme, free theme, child theme or building a custom theme can be daunting! It can also have a significant impact on your business.
• #8: When it comes to WordPress plugins, generally you have 4 options. You can …
• #9: If you are trying to get your business website up and running for the first time you may not have the initial funds for a large scale project. In this case using a free theme or premium theme is a good option. Many themes allow you customize the appearance. You may be able to upload your logo and adjust the color scheme with WordPress customizer. If you’re just getting started in your business, getting your site up and the information out there is the most important thing. Having a working website will also allow you to gather information and feedback on your content and the purpose of your site. As your business grows you can use the site as a sort of prototype for a more refined design and architecture. Using analytics and feedback you can see how visitors are engaging and use that data as leverage for designing a custom theme or even choosing a more appropriate theme that suites your needs. Premium themes can range in price from $10 to more than $200. Keep in mind that just purchasing the theme is not the end of the story. If you are not experienced with WordPress you may find yourself getting super frustrated while trying to install and setup your theme to the point that you want to smash your computer! I’ve seen this over and over! Many people end up hiring someone to setup and change the theme how they would like. Don’t be discouraged when that person tells you that the theme is limited in what it can do either. A child theme may be a good option at this point. Remember that free and premium themes are meant to be sold to the masses so a one size fits all is their approach. If this is not going to work for you consider using a child theme or build custom.
• #10: If you like a theme and the layout is close enough to what you need, using a child theme to modify the theme may be a good option. It is good to keep in mind that you should use this option to make some slight modifications. If your child theme modifications get too heavy you may end up spending more time and money modifying a theme when a custom theme would have been more appropriate. You shouldn’t really be using a theme to hijack or modify so heavily that it is completely different. This defeats the purpose of using a parent theme in the first place.
• #11: Custom themes are built from the ground up. Many people, myself included, use some type of boilerplate or starting point to work off of. Some notable starter themes are Underscores and Sage. These starter themes, as they are called, are bare bones scaffolding on which to build any type of design layout or custom solution. If you have a very specific design or layout that you would like to achieve a custom theme may be your best option. But where a custom theme becomes a necessity is where you need to couple custom design and layout with very specific functionality as well. Perhaps you have several essential plugins that you are integrating and you need the user experience to be seamless with your theme. If you are designing a web-app or custom front-end that is unique to your business you will probably need to build a custom theme especially if you are integrating with a third party service. I have seen many clients spend so much money over time modifying a theme or building a child theme off of a parent theme that they could have used to build a custom theme. Custom themes are tailored to your fit. If that is what you want, go custom
• #12: The thing about free and premium themes is that there are thousands of them! How are you to know if you are finding quality themes? You don’t know if the code is quality, all you can really see is the facade, the pretty demo, and the promises that it does everything under the sun. In the WordPress community a quality WordPress theme follows the WordPress coding standards, and doesn’t pack in too much functionality that should belong in a plugin.
• #13: With WordPress, themes are for presentation and plugins are meant to bring extra functionality to your WordPress site. The reason for this designation is important. If you switch themes with tons of functionality baked into it, you may loose your content! Take the popular premium theme Divi for example. The theme is pretty impressive and amazing in and of itself, but if you set up your site with Divi, it better be forever. Many page builders, custom shortcodes, sliders, and custom content types are built into themes. If you switch themes you will loose that content. http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-happens-when-you-switch-your-wordpress-theme
• #16: Here’s how Theme Friendly works: Theme authors donate copies of their themes to Theme Friendly for review. I run the themes through a subset of the WordPress theme review team guidelines and generate a quality score. I document exactly how the theme got its score. I record additional theme information, such as theme type, feature support, layout options, plugin support, page templates available, translated languages, etc. You search for themes based on your requirements. You make a more informed decision based on the quality score and additional theme information.
• #17: http://themereview.co/
• #20: The best way to incorporate a page builder is with a plugin. This will keep your layout consistent no matter which theme you switch to http://chrislema.com/wordpress-page-builders/
• #24: Finding the right plugin can be an exhaustive process, downloading and testing each one from the WordPress plugin repository to see if it suites your needs. To top it off there are hundreds if not thousands of premium or paid plugins to sift through. You may not want to purchase a plugin that costs $100 just to find out it is not what you need.
• #25: Read through any descriptions and documentation before assuming it does what you want Ratings can be deceiving but if there are 90 one star ratings that may be telling. If there is one 1 star review don't assume it is a crappy plugin. That person may have rated the plugin that way because it didn't do what THEY wanted. Check and see when the plugin was last updated. If the last update was 2 years ago the developer may not be actively working on the plugin. This could be a problem as many issues may not be being addressed or there could be security issues as well. Check and see if they have a premium version of the plugin. The reason I mention this is because if the developer is being paid to work on the plugin there is a greater chance it will have continual support. This isn't always the case, but imagine if you had to support thousands of non paying customers with support tickets. If the plugin doesn't do what YOU want it to do don't give it a bad review, it just isn't the plugin you've been looking for.
• #28: It is very important to choose a good host for your WordPress site. Who here has heard of managed WordPress hosting? Does anyone know what makes managed WordPress hosting different? Managed WordPress hosting is a concierge service where all technical aspects of running WordPress is managed by the host. This includes security, speed, WordPress updates, daily backups, website uptime, and scalability. The idea behind managed WordPress hosting is to offer a completely hassle-free experience, so you can focus on running your business and doing what you are good at. There are tons of companies that offer managed WordPress hosting and I would say that it is really in your best interest to choose managed WordPress hosting. So lets look at a few ...
• #29: Lets start with a flagship … wpengine
• #36: Maintainn plans start at $49 a month and include 24/7 security monitoring, secure off-site backups, WordPress Core Updates, Theme/Plugin Updates, Add-on hours available.
• #37: WP Curve can take care of small jobs in addition to added support and maintenance. Their standard plan includes unlimited small 30 min jobs for 1 site, detailed notes for every job and 24 hour live chat & email support! That is a pretty sweet deal starting at $79!
• #38: WP Site Care has a starter plan at $29 which includes 24/7 Security Monitoring, Daily Cloud Backups, WordPress, Theme, & Plugin Updates, Realtime Activity Tracking, and my favorite WordPress Tutorial Videos! That is a great deal and well worth the money if you are getting your site up and running.
• #39: WP Valet is a full service support team which offers several services including monthly support, site migrations, and a service side aspect which functions like an agency.
• #40: Codeable is a support service that works on small to big jobs. These are WordPress experts and can help you solve problems and fix bugs.
• #41: Fantasktic is a unique service that offers pain free migrations. If you are moving hosting companies this service is a great way to have a pain free migration.
• #43: Managewp.com has all your sites in one WordPress dashboard. Plans start at 0.80 cents per site. Yup, that’s right.
• #44: “InfiniteWP is a free, self-hosted multiple WordPress management platform that simplifies your WordPress management tasks into a simple click of a button.” Installing this service may require some help. They have a VIP service and an Enterprise solution as well.
• #45: Mainwp is a free site management service which uses plugins to help manage all of your installs. There are extensions and bundles which add extra features.
• #46: Ahh yes, I had to include Jetpack :). Jetpack has a Site Management module which allows you to manage multiple installs of WordPress.
• #54: You won’t find any talk of HTML, PHP or creating WP Themes here. What you will find is a simple, easy to read WordPress manual that will guide you through the process of editing your site content. You can read the Easy WP Guide WordPress manual online, download the free PDF, or purchase the eBook or brandable Word document. If you’re a WordPress consultant, use it to help your clients get the most out of their brand new site.