It’s so hard to believe that 2017 is nearly over. I feel like it was only a couple weeks ago that I sent my “New Year, New Training!” email to announce all of the excellent speakers that were coming this year.

In that email I said we would be hearing from 24 presenters at an average pace of two per month. I also mentioned that I had hired an assistant and that I was working on some other things I couldn’t share about at the time. Now that the year has passed, I’ve been longing to conduct a recap and see how I’ve done. I’ve now done just that and I thought I should share with you five major areas of focus for 2017:

1. Loads of new training from lots of new faces
2. Joining forces with 10 strategic media partners
3. Hiring an assistant for the benefit of all
4. Adding new services through private training
5. New full-time focus on WPSessions

Let’s dig in!

1. Loads of new training

All told, I hosted 17 sessions this year. I fell short of the original plan to host 24 sessions, due largely to changes in schedules for our presenters, but I’m happy with every single one of these sessions!

Here’s the full list of sessions from 2017:

What I find most remarkable about this list is that it would cost more than a full VIP Membership to buy only the presentations from 2017. Except, as a VIP you also get the entire backlog of sessions (another 60hrs of content), several highly-detailed courses, and discounts with popular products and services you’re probably using already. I’m just putting that observation out there, no pressure 🙂

2. Joining forces with awesome new partners

A major shift in how I previously operated the business occurred this spring when I began pursuing dedicated media partners, in lieu of one-off session sponsorships. Each of these partners help keep session broadcasts free and keep WPSessions running.

I had two rules for each of the partners I approached: 1) they had to be the producer of a tool or service that I use and love; 2) I would only forge 10 partnerships for the rest of the year. I want to be clear that I am the one who made first contact with each of these companies and I believe they’re the right/best answer in each of their domains.

With that, these are the awesome folks who made the cut:

• SearchWP – WordPress core search sucks, and SearchWP fixes that in a big, big way. You can control which fields are included in search, how valuable each field is for ranking, and more. I can’t imagine launching a site that has visitor-facing search without this plugin.
• SproutApps – Dan is the sole proprietor behind this incredible suite of tools made to make life for independent contractors and small businesses better: Sprout Invoices – an invoice generation and payment portal; Sprout Clients – a super simple CRM, and Help Scout Desk – a seamless integration between Help Scout and WordPress. All of them are awesome.
• WP Migrate DB Pro – Effortlessly migrate content from one WP install to another. You can even push or pull data between sites in addition to doing a traditional export and import. CLI commands, media library integration, and other similarly great features make this my go-to tool for active development on all production sites and redesigns.
• Beaver Builder – the only page builder that I even consider using. All content is compiled back to HTML and stored into the content area, portions can be saved as reusable template partials, and every single module can be handled differently for responsive layouts. They’re keeping a close eye on integration opportunities for Gutenberg too, so no need to worry about picking up a soon-to-be outmoded tool.
• WooCommerce – the tool I use for every ecommerce site I build (including WPSessions). I love its flexibility and extensibility.
• Sucuri – the only security company I trust with important sites. Sucuri provides monitoring and remediation services, among other things, to help you keep sites free from harm.
• Gravity Forms – The form plugin I use on my site and sites I’m personally responsible for. I don’t think I’ve ever had a single complaint about using this plugin and the team continues to make it better each and every year.
• WP All Import – The best tool I’ve found for bringing in foreign data into WordPress in a systemized way, without writing a pain-staking, custom migration script. Within WP you can specify the data source, drag & drop each piece of data into where it belongs (title, body, terms, meta, etc.), apply templates or transformations to each piece of data, and then save that import script for re-running again either manually or on an automated interval. It’s incredible.
• Pantheon – the most agency- and developer-focused web host that I have found. Their infrastructure and tooling is pretty perfect for all of us, and perfect for our clients too. My two favorite things: 1) mutli-dev environments you can use to spin up individual sites for each feature being tested; 2) every account is free and fully-featured until you decide to launch the site to the public.
• Hover – the only domain registrar I use and recommend (I seriously, genuinely love working with Hover). They have no upsells and zero friction between picking your domain and owning your domain. The DNS tools are crazy simple to operate. And all of it can be done effortlessly from your phone, too (I speak from first-hand experience, because that’s how I originally acquired WPSessions.com).

3. Hiring an assistant for the benefit of us all

Immediately at the start of the year I had the opportunity to hire Cate DeRosia as the first (and only) paid contractor to assist with WPSessions. Her help has been invaluable to me all throughout the year.

Most of Cate’s time and attention has been spent transcribing the back catalog of training videos. Thus far she has transcribed over 53 hours of video! Soon this effort will be visible to you as closed captions and on-page transcripts of our entire video library. This will allow you to read the training rather than listen, if that’s what you prefer, or jump to the specific section of video that narrates the subject you see in the transcript. I’m super excited to roll this out across 2018.

Besides transcribing, Cate has provided assistance with administrative work of the site: preparing session descriptions, navigating session scheduling, and other helpful tasks. I’m confident she would have been of even more help if I could have been bothered to properly outline and delegate other things that need to be done in this business.

In all, hiring Cate is handily the single best decision I made for WPSessions in a long time. I definitely recommend you consider hiring a quality assistant for your own work. But please find somebody else, because I really like having Cate in my corner and don’t want her to leave WPSessions for whatever exciting things you’re doing.

4. Introducing new services: private training

I actually piloted this service quietly in 2016 with two different teams, then rolled it out quietly again to two more teams here in 2017. This was one of those things I teased in my “New Year, New Training” email in January. Now I’d like to officially go on the record to say that Private, Team Training is something WPSessions proudly offers. I call it “team training”, but in reality it’s useful for individuals who want to increase their edge, teams who want to grow together, and your clients who need to learn how all of their new tools work.

Through this offering I am able to provide highly relevant and targeted training directly to you(r team or clients), in private, and deliver exactly what you need to learn at precisely the time it is most useful to learn it. For example, do you have a complex ecommerce project on the horizon? I can deliver a presentation, answer questions, review proposals or code, and help you move in the best possible direction. Need to learn how to better leverage the WP REST API? WP-CLI? Implement better workflow and project forecasting or management processes? Need a better on-boarding or vetting process for new hires? Yep, I can help with those, too.

I’ve worked with several leading WordPress agencies and shops, have run my own development and consultancy business since 1999, and have sold and built web services ranging from sub $1,000 to the many hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’ve managed teams of 3 and teams of 30. I’ve helped with hiring, training, leading, and developing. My experiences are varied and my insights are many. And I’d love to help you or your team learn, grow, and do better in 2018!

There is just one catch. This new level of service is extremely limited and only available through an application process. You can learn all about it and get in touch to discuss things further on the Team Training page.

5. A new full-time focus on WPSessions

I was also very quiet about this transition. In June I stepped away from many years of working in the agency space and leapt into full-time focus on all-things WPSessions. I didn’t want to make a lot of noise about it at the time because I knew how much work was still ahead of me steering WPSessions back towards a successful path. Now that we’re six months past the change I feel like it’s finally time to let the cat out of the bag.

A significant portion of my energy these past six months has actually gone towards developing two different on-boarding programs as part of the new team training service. The rest went towards coordinating ever-changing speaker schedules, speaking at and attending several conferences, and designing the upcoming training curriculum for 2018. If you’re reading things closely, good news, I’m about to reward you with a little nugget that most other people won’t hear about until a big announcement several months from now: I’m personally producing dozens of hours of short, focused tutorial videos to help you learn just-in-time what you need to know to complete a current task or project.

I’ve really enjoyed working only on WPSessions these past many months and am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue this focus throughout 2018. The business currently has enough cash reserves to fund me through May of 2018. Between now and then I’d like to sell enough VIP memberships or Team Training contracts to fund training and development through to 2019. That means, if you like what I’m producing here and want it to continue, you should consider investing into one of those. And if you don’t like it that much, no hard feelings! Perhaps the content that arrives in 2018 will change your mind 🙂

Thank you, and thank our media partners!

With all things considered, 2017 was an incredible year for WPSessions. I’m looking forward to making 2018 even better. This site wouldn’t be possible without the multitude of customers and media partners that I’ve had the privilege of working with throughout the year. If you’re in either group, thank you very much for funding this and investing in me, yourself, and the broader WordPress community.

If you’re a beneficiary of the training provided here, please reach out to each media partner and tell them “thank you”, too. Here’s a list of their twitter handles:

• @SearchWP
• @_SproutApps
• @DliciousBrains (makers of WP Migrate DB Pro)
• @BeaverBuilder
• @WooCommerce
• @SucuriSecurity
• @GravityForms
• @WPAllImport
• @PantheonIO
• @Hover

If you’d like to stay informed with all the good things that are coming to WPSessions, you should join the newsletter! I send out a once-per-month update and an occasional (but rare) announcement or reminder.

PS – Don’t miss out on the 12 Days of WPS give-away! There are 78 different prizes available, including a lifetime VIP membership. There are different prizes with new opportunities to enter every day.

Today I get to reveal to you the next five courses coming to WPSessions.

Even more exciting, I get to reveal to you the next five instructors who will be teaching those courses. These should all be names that you recognize, which is my favorite part about this. If you don’t know them already, be sure to follow them on Twitter so that you can get to know them. They’re just incredible!

All five of these courses are already in production and will be released as they’re ready. Our first course, Writing your First WordPress Plugin, is already available and ready for you.

Without any further ado, let’s take a look at the new courses!

Greg Rickaby – Mastering Sass: Beginner to Expert

How many lines of CSS would you say go into the typical web project? What about just those lines for accommodating fluid, responsive break points? How about for browser compatibility? Typography rules? Color schemes?

The amount of CSS we use to make the web beautiful has increased in step with the amount of control granted to us by browser engines. And it is unlikely to decrease any time soon.

Enter Sass: an elegant solution to writing fewer lines of CSS while, at the same time, doing an order of magnitude more with them.

Recently, Sass was adopted by the core WordPress development team in order to optimize how the admin area of WordPress is styled. You probably already knew that, and you probably hear it mentioned everywhere because it is an extremely popular way to style the web.

Follow along with Greg as he carefully explains the basic building blocks of Sass, gradually walking you through to several expert design practices. Whether you’re afraid of Sass, are just starting to use it, or have been comfortable with it for some time, there is something for you in this course.

About Greg Rickaby
Greg stumbled upon WordPress in 2006 and has been converting PSD’s into child-themes ever since. He started as a freelancer and now works full-time with WebDevStudios as a Design Lead. You can find his blog at GregRickaby.com.

When offline, Greg loves to make homemade pizza and watch football (he’s part-owner of the Green Bay Packers). Saturday you’ll find him with a beer in one hand and grilling with the other. Sunday, he’ll be behind an audio console at Wiregrass Church – making praise and worship come to life.

Follow Greg on Twitter

Zack Tollman – How to Optimize WordPress Performance

Zack Tollman loves WordPress performance. He has worked to optimize WordPress for peak performance on a number of sites. In this course, he shares all of the tips and secrets he’s collected over his experienced career.

The course begins by introducing a number of simple tools we can use to measure performance – if you can measure it, you can optimize it! Zach also starts off with explaining some of the most basic principles to website performance, from server response time through the entire cascade of HTTP requests and browser rendering. From there, we’ll focus on some of the server-side configurations you can do to improve site performance and then progress towards optimizing the rendering path on the front-end so that the most important elements load first and fastest.

The topic here is quite advanced, but Zack explains it with such relatable, easy-to-understand concepts that viewers of all skill levels will be able to follow along. He’s a master, and we’re thrilled to host him!

About Zack Tollman
Residing in Portland, Oregon, Zack longs for the cold, snowy days of his Alaskan youth. He enjoys strumming his guitar, playing hockey, and spending time with his wife and dog. Otherwise, you’ll find him at his computer meticulously spinning lines of clean WordPress code.

Follow Zack on Twitter.

Chris Lema – How To Make a Membership Site

There are a lot of questions you need to answer before building a membership site. We’ve addressed many of those, in fact, in our session titled “Building Membership Sites”.

The list of tools available to help you build a membership site is almost endless. Oftentimes, it’s hard to know where to begin and which tools are best for your specific needs.

Chris Lema helps you cut through all of that. He lays out the feature sets of several popular choices for membership sites in a way that makes it incredibly easy to compare and decide what’s right for you. From here, we go through the process of actually building, populating, and testing the membership site; this course covers the entire experience, beginning to end.

About Chris Lema
Chris Lema is the CTO and Chief Strategist at Crowd Favorite. He’s also a daily blogger, a public speaker, and product strategist. He helps companies leverage WordPress, and helps WordPress companies find leverage.
Follow Chris on Twitter.

Tom McFarlin – Using the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate

Ever since creating the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate in 2011, Tom McFarlin has received numerous requests to detail exactly how he uses it and what incredible it can do. In this course, Tom takes us through all of that.

The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate is a standardized, organized, object-oriented foundation for building high-quality WordPress plugins. It follows WordPress coding standards and has received contributions from developers worldwide. In this course, we’ll talk through some of the organizational decisions that have gone into the Boilerplate, and we’ll take a look at how to build a WordPress plugin using the Boilerplate.

About Tom McFarlin
Tom McFarlin is a self-employed WordPress developer. He runs Pressware and lives just outside of Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, two daughters, and two dogs. He also blogs daily at tommcfarlin.com.

Follow Tom on Twitter.

Brian Richards – Up and Running with Unit Tests

Do you hate buggy software? I certainly do! One thing I hate even more, though, is creating buggy software.

After years of what I would call “traditional” development my eyes were opened to the power of Unit Tests. After that, everything changed. The way I used to build things included lots of manual testing, lots of broken code, and lots and lots of expletives. It’s one thing to write a function and assume it works, it’s another thing entirely to write a function and have it verifiably work, every time.

In this course we’ll start at the very, very beginning: What is a unit test, and why should you care? Then we’ll look at a couple of examples of what a unit test does, followed by a complete walkthrough the entire process of configuring your local development environment to support unit tests. We’ll also setup a new project with unit tests so that you can see how to set your best foot forward, as well as how to convert an existing project to use unit tests so that you can carefully and confidently refactor and improve legacy code. Finally, we’ll go the extra mile and setup remote, continuous testing integration. If you write software in any capacity, it is imperative that you learn and master the art of testing your code.

About Brian Richards
Hey, that’s me! I run WPSessions.com and get to build really cool things with WordPress (almost) every day.

Outside of WordPress, I spend a lot of my time chasing my two-year-old son around the house. And… that’s it really. I’m either building cool things with WordPress, thinking about building cool things with WordPress, or taking a break from WordPress and relaxing with my family.

Follow Brian on Twitter

VIP Exclusives

Each of these individual courses would be tremendously valuable on their own, and as a VIP Member you can access all of them!

If you haven’t already joined, or haven’t heard about the VIP program offered here, this should give you 5 compelling reasons to register. You’ll also gain access to every single live and recorded session we broadcast, all future courses, plus exclusive discounts from incredible shops and services, all for an entire year (and a few other things that are still forthcoming).

If you have any questions, I encourage you to leave them in the comments below or send them via the contact form.

Become a VIP

Update 2014-07-05: The VIP Invitation list is now full, but you can join the waiting list to be invited as soon as space is available by using the same registration form, linked below.

For months I’ve been coordinating, planning, and building the “next big thing” for WPSessions. Today I’m thrilled to share it with you: WPSessions VIP.

I’ve grown tremendously as a developer in the past year – real, measurable, meaningful growth – much of it thanks to WPSessions instructors. WPSessions has budded into an incredible resource, not only for myself but for hundreds of others, too. I alluded to all of these things, plus the hint of more to come, in my Year in Review post a couple weeks back.

What is WPSessions VIP?

You can read all about the perks of being a VIP member on the VIP announcement page, but here’s the tl; dr version:

• Access to all sessions – past, present, and future – for as long as you remain a member.
• Access to all-new long-form courses – Pre-recorded, deep dives into specific WordPress topics (e.g. “Writing Your First WordPress Plugin”, “Understanding and Leveraging Caching”, “Building a Portfolio Site”, etc.).
• Consistent New Content – Last year I committed to add 12 new sessions, we’re already at 8 this year and we’ve only just begun! I’ll continue to add live sessions and pre-recorded courses every month to the benefit of us all.
• Downloadable Videos – Take the entirety of the WPS library wherever you go, even if you’re going – gasp – offline!
• Exclusive Speaker Interviews – Watch and learn great behind-the-scenes details from many of the experts who present on WPS (and even some who haven’t, yet).
• Member-only Discounts – Save bundles of money on quality products and services from companies you know and love
• Better Affiliate Payout – VIP members will earn a 30% commission, instead of the standard 20%, on the affiliate program we just announced.
• Community Forum – Discuss the sessions, courses, tricky project issues, whatever you have going on (note that StackExchange is an excellent place for WP-specific coding problems).

As you can see, the new program includes a ton of new benefits. Prices will be announced soon, and those on the invitation list will get the best deal.

Available by Invitation Only, with a discount

In order to provide the best possible experience and level of attention for VIP members, I’m limiting the registration to invitation only.

The first 100 people to register for the invitation list will also receive a nice discount towards their membership.

I’ll begin sending invitations early next week, so you have until Friday to get on the invitation list.

Is WPSessions VIP for you?

I know this program sounds pretty incredible, and I truly believe it is, but it’s not for everyone.

There are a lot of people looking to “become a WordPress expert in 24 hours”, and this isn’t going to do that (honestly, nothing can do that, and anyone who says differently is selling you lies). There are even more people looking to become incredible developers without putting in the necessary work. The VIP program isn’t for them.

The VIP program is for people who are serious about improving their skills, who understand that it’s only through determination and hard work that they will see measurable progress, and who choose to press forward because they know it’s worth it – both for themselves, and for their career. WPSessions VIP enables that process to happen faster, more thoroughly, and with a higher quality of mentor than you’ll find anywhere else.

I’m not selling some kind of magical shortcut here. I’m selling the right answers from the hard-won experience of other expert developers. It will help you to learn faster, but you need to put in the time to soak in these experiences and shared knowledge, and maximize your return on investing in yourself.

Request an invitation today

You can read all about the new VIP Program using the link below. Thank you for believing in WPSessions, and I truly hope I can help you be empowered by WordPress.