Wordpress: Wp-tonic Show Is For Online Course Builders, Business Owners & Wordpress Professionals

AJ Morris of Liquid Web joins our Saturday panel as we discuss the qualities of high-end WordPress hosting. We find out what differentiates a high end managed WordPress host from the average hosting companies that cost a few bucks a month. Why is it important to have a quality web host? What are you looking for in web hosting for your WordPress website? We'll answer these questions and many more.   Our panel this week:   AJ Morris of Liquid Web (@ajmorris on Twitter) Jackie D'Elia of Jackie D'Elia Design (@jdelia) Jonathan Denwood of WP-Tonic (@jonathandenwood) John Locke of Lockedown Design (@Lockedown_)   Episode 144 Table of Contents 0:00 Podcast Intros 1:50 WordPress News Story #1: Nashville to Host WordCamp US 2017-2018 https://wptavern.com/nashville-to-host-wordcamp-us-2017-2018   10:03 The .blog Bait & Switch http://chrisschidle.com/the-dot-blog-bait-and-switch/   18:23 Upvato Backup Service Confirms Files Are Lost, Plans to Relaunch on New Provider https://wptavern.com/upvato-backup-service-confi

In this powerful interview, Gordan Orlic of Web Factory Ltd discusses becoming an elite plugin author on CodeCanyon and why he's leaving the platform, and moving everything to his own website. Gordan pulls no punches as he talks about making the transition from getting traffic on a marketplace like CodeCanyon to setting up shop on your own. Find Gordan at http://www.webfactoryltd.com/  Follow Gordan on Twitter on https://twitter.com/webfactoryltd   Episode 143 Table of Contents 0:00 Podcast Intros 2:30 How did Gordan get into web development and get into building WordPress plugins? 4:00 How did Gordan make the transition from client work to selling products? 7:46 Niching down helps you make more money in the long run. 10:19 Positioning and white-label plugins: ideas are garbage, having a working prototype is more valuable. 13:36 What are the pros and cons of being on Envato vs starting a plugin shop on your own? 22:22 Why is Envato still recovering and changing course from decisions they made five years ago?

On this week's WP-Tonic round table, we give some insight on how to work with non-profit organizations. How is working with non-profits different than working with clients in the private sector? Our round table of WordPress experts also discusses the best marketing practices for non-profits. Our panel this week: Morten Rand-Hendriksen of Lynda.com Sallie Goetsch of WP Fangirl Jonathan Denwood of WP-Tonic John Lockeof Lockedown Design Show Table of Contents: 0:00 Show Intros 2:02 WordPress Story #1: Does Jetpack slow down a WordPress website? https://mattreport.com/jetpack-speed/ 20:04 WordPress Story #2: How I Built It, Episode 12: Chris Lema and Beyond Good https://howibuilt.it/episode-12-chris-lema-and-beyond-good/ 31:54 Main Topic: Working With Non-Profits 32:02 What is different about working with non-profits vs working with regular businesses? 34:14 How does the non-profit managerial structure affect timelines and the decision making process? 36:44 Jonathan shares a link: How Nonprofits Get really

We talk with Heather about the life-cycle of web agencies, marketing, social media, and client relationships. How do Heather and her team find the right type of clients to work with?  Why is it important to develop strong ongoing relationships in your local business community? I really enjoyed our chat with Heather. I could see why she has been so successful in driving her agency forward. The WordPress community has also been a key in building her business to its present level. Episode 141 Table of Contents 0:00 Podcast Intros 1:33 Who does Blue Steele Solutions serve and how did they find their niche? 3:37 How does Blue Steele Solutions determine what clients are going to be a good fit? 5:40 What is the value in nurturing long-term relationships with clients? 8:55 Launching the website is not the end of the project, it's the beginning. 9:34 How did Blue Steele Solutions grow? What is Heather's origin story? 12:31 How does being active in the local community benefit Heather's business? 15:57 What are

In this WP-Tonic round-table we look at WordPress and security with an excellent panel of WordPress community experts. Our panel this week: Brian Jackson from https://woorkup.com/ and https://kinsta.com/ Sallie Goetsch from https://wpfangirl.com/ Jackie D'Elia from https://jackiedelia.com/ Jonathan Denwood from https://www.wp-tonic.com/ John Locke from https://www.lockedowndesign.com/ Episode 140 Table of Contents 0:00 Podcast intros 1:50 WordPress Security – 18+ Steps to Lock Down Your Site https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-security 3:12 Learning From Buggy WordPress Wp-login Malware https://blog.sucuri.net/2016/10/learning-buggy-wordpress-wp-login-malware.html 6:49 Updating your WordPress plugins is one of the most important things you can do 10:22 Test all plugin and theme updates on a staging server 12:25 Surviving Electmageddon: Protecting against a wave of DNS outages https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/11/surviving-electmageddon-protecting-wave-dns-outages/ (DDoS attacks and advantages of h

In episode 139, we interview Robert Abela, founder of WP Security Audit Log, a leading WordPress auditing plugin. Robert's blog at WP White Security is a great resource for learning more about WordPress security best practices. Robert focuses on explaining website security in a way that non-technical people can understand. Resources: WP White Security https://www.wpwhitesecurity.com/ WP Security Audit (WordPress plugin) https://www.wpsecurityauditlog.com/ WP Security Bloggers (Aggregate feed) http://www.wpsecuritybloggers.com/ Episode 139 Table of Contents 0:00 Intros /What Robert does. 3:24 Why does WordPress have a reputation for being insecure. 5:55 Many attacks are bots looking for weak credentials or plugins that have not been updated. 8:16 Many people make a living just configuring Wordfence, Sucuri, and iThemes Security. 9:12 Security plugins are a tool, not a 100% guarantee you won;t be hacked. 14:35 Why are audit logs important? And are website owners ever surprised how much activity t

We talk about CSS, Flexbox, CS Grids, CSS frameworks like Bootstrap and Foundation, Sass and other CSS pre-processors. Our panel this week: Alex Denning from https://alexdenning.com/ and https://masterwp.co/ Jackie D'Elia from https://jackiedelia.com/ Sallie Goetsch from https://wpfangirl.com/ Jonathan Denwood from https://www.wp-tonic.com/ John Locke from https://www.lockedowndesign.com   Episode 138 Table of Contents 0:00 Podcast Intros. 1:49 WordPress New Story #1: The Wix Mobile App, A WordPress Joint https://ma.tt/2016/10/wix-and-the-gpl/ 8:07 WordPress Story #2: Lessons from failing to sell WordPress themes at the start of the gold rush https://alexdenning.com/lessons-sell-wordpress-themes/ 25:08 Main Topic: All About CSS 25:26 What things do you find frustrating about CSS? 27:18 How has CSS changed over the years? 30:16 Flexbox, and the CSS problems it has solved 34:44 The browsers that tend to have browser quirks in 2016/2017 37:02 Do CSS Frameworks make front-end development easier or harder? 42:31 J

We put the spotlight on our panelist Sallie Goetsch. Sallie has been involved with the web since it's beginnings in the early 1990s, as well as a career in academia. She talks about these subjects, the WordPress community, living in the UK, and Greek philosophy in this very special episode of WP-Tonic.   Sallie is also the organizer of the East Bay WordPress Meetup and a valued member of the WordPress community.   http://www.meetup.com/Eastbay-WordPress-Meetup/ https://www.wpfangirl.com/ Episode 137 Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 1:42 How did Sallie first get into web development? 4:01 Sallie's early experiences with WordPress 5:07 How Sallie got involved with the East Bay WordPress Meetup 6:52 What are the biggest changes Sallie has seen in the web since the early 1990s? 9:27 What Sallie remembers about the Web Standards Movement. 10:05 Are we still addressing the same concerns on the web as we were ten and twenty years ago? 11:18 How is the web community progressing on making accessibility a priori

In this episode we discuss WordCamp Sacramento 2016, about half of the normal WP-Tonic round-table panel were presenting at this year’s Sacramento WordCamp event and we all had a great-time. We would like to say that Jennifer Bourn, the organizing team and the weekend’s volunteers did an amazing job!   Everyone on our panel this week was in attendance at WordCamp Sacramento 2016. Sallie, Kim, and Jonathan all gave presentations as speakers, and John was part of the organizing team. Here is our recap of Sacramento WordCamp 2016. Episode 136 Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 2:01 WordPress News Story #1: 25 Things I Learned as an Organizer of a WordCamp by SanJeev Mishra https://sanjeevmishra.com/things-learnt-wordcamp-nashik-2016/ 14:15 WordPress News Story #2: WP REST API Content Endpoints Officially Approved for Merge into WordPress 4.7 https://wptavern.com/wp-rest-api-officially-approved-for-merge-into-wordpress-4-7 21:04 Main Story: Recap of WordCamp Sacramento 2016 21:28 Sallie's presentation on

What can I say about Beka apart from "cool". She is the lead WooCommerce developer at SkyVerge, who have built a great reputation not only for their work with WooCommerce, but the way they do business. In this interview we cover quite a large landscape of topics however we mostly talk about eCommerce and what Beka has learned about this subject over the past 5 years! SkyVerge https://www.skyverge.com/ Sell With WP https://www.sellwithwp.com/ Episode 135 Table of Contents: 0:00 Intros 1:48 How did Beka first get into web development? 3:17 What were the early days of SkyVerge like? How does it compare to where SkyVerge is now? 4:35 More about how the Jilt app solves cart abandonment and increases revenue. 6:25 How does third-party development factor into the growth of a platform or ecosystem? 8:30 How important is to experience ecommerce as a merchant before you approach it as a developer? 9:47 How did the acquisition of WooCommerce by Automattic affect the WooCommerce development ecosystem? 11:05 D

This week, our panel examines tools and tips for podcasting With WordPress. We look at why you might consider starting a podcast and the tools and services that you should consider using.   In EP134, we discussed podcasting with WordPress: what you need to know, tools to help you, and tips from our panel members on how to launch a new podcast. We went over what podcasting equipment you'll need, the best podcasting microphone to get started with, useful podcasting software and storage services, and the best podcasting themes and plugins for WordPress.   Our panel this week: Brian Lee Jackson of Kinsta.com and Woorkup.com Sallie Goetch of WPFangirl Jackie D'Elia of Jackie D'Elia Designs Jonathan Denwood of WP-Tonic and the Mail-Right Show John Locke of Lockedown Design   Episode 134 Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 2:15 WordPress Story #1: GoDaddy's New Primer Theme Approved on WordPress.org in Same Day http://wpin.me/godaddy-wordpress-theme-approved-same-day https://wptavern.com/godaddys-new-primer-theme-bypas

133 WP Tonic Interview with Kai Davis Outreach Consultant & Author We talk with consultant Kai Davis about podcast outreach and other forms of marketing. http://kaidavis.com/ Episode 133 Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 2:20 How does choosing a niche help you as consultant? How do you choose that niche? 3:56 Kai recommends The Positioning Manual by Phillip Morgan https://philipmorganconsulting.com/authority-resource-center/the-positioning-manual-for-technical-firms/ 4:33 What is digital outreach? How does digital outreach help you as a consultant? 6:41 Aligning the needs of the audience builder, the audience, and the audience guest (the outreaching business). How do you figure out how to align values for all three? 9:38 How important is it to nurture relationships within your industry? 10:56 Consulting is not a zero-sum game. 11:31 What prevents consultants from creating educational assets that will be valuable lead magnets? 15:49 Why it's vital to build a product ladder to allow people to engag

We have a great panel of WordPress educational experts and developers this Saturday, Morten Rand-Hendriksen from Lynda.com, Kim Shivler, from Whiteglovewebtraining, Jackie D’Elia from  Jackie D’Elia Design and our co-host John Locke from Lockedown Design. What are the various resources that we have used before? What are the websites, books, seminars, conferences, and courses that we recommend? Show Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 3:03 WordPress story #1: The Future of eLearning by Chris Lema. http://chrislema.com/future-of-elearning/ 29:44 WordPress story #2: Apply for the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship from the WordCamp US 2016 blog. https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/2016/10/03/apply-for-the-kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship/ 40:16 Main Topic: Resources for Continuing Your Web Education 40:52 What resources would you recommend to someone who is a total beginner at web design and development? 44:50 Learning the web in the early days vs. learning web design and development today. 48:46 Some great resourc

We have a great interview with WordPress developer, business coach, and podcaster Curtis McHale from Vancouver, BC, CA. Curtis has been involved in the WordPress community for a number of years and has contributed a lot to helping WordPress freelance developer get more quality clients. You can find Curtis at http://curtismchale.ca/ and at https://twitter.com/curtismchale. Show Table of Contents 0:00 Intros. 1:28 How important is for you to know why you are in business? 3:00 Stop running a hobby, and start running a business. 4:18 What are some obstacles preventing people from running a successful web development business? 6:38 Why you shouldn't answer your email all day long. 9:08 What holds people back from charging the rates they should be? 10:57 What are your thought on paid discovery and Socratic questioning? 12:53 How can you improve communication with your web development clients? 14:57 What are your thoughts on hourly billing and value pricing? 17:39 Why you should still have an effective

We'll look at what inbound marketing and content marketing are, and some examples of businesses using inbound and content marketing. We'll examine our own track records with content marketing, and look at if it has worked for our own clients or not. If you do any form of online marketing or lead generation, this will be a discussion you don't want to miss. Our panel for this show: Adam Fout of Blue Steele Solutions Bridget Willard of WordImpress! Sallie Goetch of WP Fangirl Jonathan Denwood of WP-Tonic John Locke of Lockedown Design   Show Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 2:50 This week in WordPress stories 2:54 Pippin Williamson of Pippin's Plugins did a huge rundown of different page builders. What were your thoughts? 20:17 There is a theme on ThemeForest selling for $225. Will this be the first of many? Will this have any long-term effects on the theme market? 30:10 The main topic is "Does Content Marketing Really Work?" 31:30 What is content marketing? 33:05 How do you come up with content ma

We sit down with Chris Handy, CEO and Founder of Thinkhandy to discuss sales funnels, inbound marketing, email marketing, and nurturing leads. http://www.thinkhandy.com/ Show Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 0:37 What is inbound marketing? How does inbound marketing relate to the sales cycle? 1:40 Inbound marketing has expanded it's meaning to the point of dilution 2:09 People buy differently than they used to 3:00 Content creation has become more casual 3:31 Answering your customers questions online 4:50 Wanting to get questions answered without talking to a sales person 5:58 50% of sales in  B2B are made before you ever speak to the prospect 7:55 Easing into the sales funnel with email marketing 8:34 Every email marketing campaign is going to look different, depending on the business and audience 9:57 People get stuck on The Law of Demand 11:09 Don't be afraid to share unique content in email newsletters 12:20 Be more of a teacher 14:08 Curating and publishing content on a specific subject in y

In this round-table show, we go deep into SEO and what works in 2016 and what can damage your website's Google ranking. We look at black hat SEO techniques you should avoid, and outdated SEO myths that do more harm than good.   This week, we're talking black hat SEO, and the outdated SEO techniques you  might be using that will do more harm than good for your Google rankings. Our panel this week: Jackie D'Elia https://jackiedelia.com/ Jonathan Denwood https://www.wp-tonic.com Sallie Goetch https://www.wpfangirl.com/ John Locke https://www.lockedowndesign.com/ We have some weekly WordPress news stories that we hit in the first half hour: 1 - ButterBean Post Meta Box Framework 1.0 Released https://wptavern.com/butterbean-post-meta-box-framework-1-0-released 2 - WordPress for Enterprise: Why Your Enterprise Business Should Use WordPress https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-enterprise/ 3 - Why customers want WordPress Page Builders http://chrislema.com/want-wordpress-page-builders/ Show Table of Content

We discuss with James White CEO of IntouchCRM what its really like to run a successful SaaS company in 2016. James and team have spent the last 8 + years building one of the most popular CRMs in the UK for small businesses.   In this episode, James has a lot of insights on how to differentiate yourself from the competition, what it takes to makes sales, and the importance of email marketing.   Show Table of Contents   0:00 Intros 1:52 Why did James start a Software as a Service company in the first place? 4:20 What is the general advice James would give people starting a company or wanting to be an entrepreneur? 6:28 Dont concentrate on the technology - find your customer and focus on your marketing. 7:24 Planning is the most important step in launching a business 8:39 How the InTouch Growth Academy is helping businesses actually succeed with their CRM 9:43 "Software (by) itself doesn't do anything." 10:20 Customers need help getting started with your product 11:40 The value of a hybrid Saas and training serv

This week, our round table of WordPress experts discussed the topic, "What's Your Overall Online Strategy?" Our panel this week: Sallie Goetch https://www.wpfangirl.com/ Kim Shivler https://howtobuildanonlinecourse.com/ Jackie D'Elia https://jackiedelia.com/ Johnathan Denwood https://www.wp-tonic.com/   Before the main topic, we discussed some relevant WordPress news stories. WordPress News Stories 1 - Headway Themes Confirms Financial Difficulties, Issues Apology to Customers https://wptavern.com/headway-themes-confirms-financial-difficulties-issues-apology-to-customers 2 - Zerif Lite Suspended from WordPress Theme Directory, 300K Users Left Without Updates https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-suspended-from-wordpress-theme-directory-300k-users-left-without-updates  3 - Review Signal Publishes 2016 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks https://wptavern.com/review-signal-publishes-2016-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-suspended-from-wordpress-theme-direct

Over a year ago I wrote one our most popular posts on the WP-Tonic’s website about the importance of speed when it comes to your WordPress-powered website in regards to usability and how Google ranks your website in SEO (search engine optimization) terms.   https://www.wp-tonic.com/blog/11-the-key-steps-to-make-your-wordpress-site-load-faster/   In this episode, we talk about 11 things you can do to make your WordPress website faster. A lot of this is based on a 3500+ word article that Jonathan put together for the WP-Tonic, but we further extrapolate the ideas and techniques talked about there. https://www.wp-tonic.com/blog/11-the-key-steps-to-make-your-wordpress-site-load-faster/ Show Table of Contents: 0:00 Intros 2:06 Reviewing the 11 steps to making your WordPress site faster 2:59 Page speed testing tools 3:23 Google Page Speed Insights 3:48 Time to first byte is an SEO factor 4:05 Why large sites spend so much time on page speed 4:44 The waterfall view of browser resources 5:28 Chrome Devel