WordPress is Not Free (Part 2)
In Part 2 of three, I’m looking at the reasons that ponying-up for WordPress hosting, plugins, themes, and consulting should cost money. Sometimes, it costs a lot.
WordPress
Vote with Your Mouse for the Best WordPress Ideas [link]
Even if you’ve never written a single line of HTML, JavaScript, CSS, or PHP code, it’s still easy to contribute to the future of WordPress! WordPress.org’s “Ideas” section is a tucked-away but important way to submit feedback to the WordPress team. Everyone from a plugin developer to a first-time WordPress user can express their opinions, … Continue reading “Vote with Your Mouse for the Best WordPress Ideas [link]”
The Cost of WordPress (Part 1): WordPress is Free
WORDPRESS IS FREE! That is a true statement, even if it’s not the whole truth. When getting started with WordPress, it’s important to know what you or your organization will and won’t pay for. I’ll be tackling that issue in three parts. Here’s the first.
I Just Helped Build a Website In Four Days [status]
This past weekend, I built a site for an amazing student group and nonprofit in Grinnell, Iowa. As a former founding member of the Social Entrepreneurs of Grinnell, I wanted to continue helping the group in an exciting time: They’re a finalist for an award from the White House! Read about the site I built, and please take a moment to vote for SEG.
On Separating Content and Design
It’s a bit of a “buzzphrase”: “You should always separate content and design.” But this was also a mind-blowing and useful concept when I first learned it. Join me as I share various applications of this idea and try to nuance it just a bit.
Screen Options: Little known. Greatly needed. [video]
If you’re a WordPress user, read this post. “Screen Options” let you control customizations to many pages in the WordPress administrative interface. Unfortunately, the way you change these is a little confusing unless you know where to look. Here’s a good video giving you a very quick overview.
WordPress Tip: Don’t Use “admin.” Seriously.
You may have heard that you shouldn’t use the default “admin” account that comes with WordPress. This week, I saw some data that confirmed this. So read why, and if you haven’t yet, change your own sites. You’ll be safer for it.
Releasing My First Plugin [status]
As I continue to learn more about WordPress and benefit from the work of others, I’m excited to share a piece of code with the community that makes WordPress a little bit easier to use!
Give Thanks to your Favorite Open Source Products
This year, I’ll be adding a new tradition to my year-end giving: open source “thank you” donations! Join me!
Overview and Example of WordPress “Child Theming” [gallery]
WordPress uses a technique called child theming to create a new design based on an existing theme (a set of files that defines a WordPress design). In June, I gave a presentation to the Seattle WordPress meetup about child theme uses and techniques. This post contains the slides of that presentation and an example of one recent project in which I used the child theming technique.
Choosing the Right WordPress Design Strategy for your Website
WordPress websites use “themes” to give them custom designs. Picking the right theme, though, is quite challenging. You can purchase themes, modify themes, or hire someone (like me) to design and build a custom theme. Each strategy has pros and cons which I’ll walk you through in this post.