Meet Bryce Adams, WordPress Expert

Posted on March 18, 2017 by Brian R.

Bryce presented Lessons Learned Building a WordPress SaaS on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 5pm EST. You can also purchase the recording to watch at any time for just $19.

During this session, Bryce explained the lessons he’s learned and mistakes he’s made while building a custom reporting service for WooCommerce. In particular, we spent a lot of time talking about the logistics, costs, and challenges presented by creating a SaaS.

Without any further ado, here are Bryce’s answers to my interview questions.

Where can we find you on the internet?

I’m mostly on Twitter @bryceadams but also have a personal blog at https://bryce.se. I don’t have much time to write posts these days but when I do, they tend to end up on Metorik’s Behind the Scenes blog. Why? Well, they’re all mostly related to Metorik, so why not?!

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

Many years ago I made my first blog, which of course ran WordPress. Slowly over the years I needed to customise more parts of the blog and other blogs I built for friends, so I began picking up the necessary developer skills and eventually ended up with my first real job in the WordPress space at WooThemes, working in WooCommerce support.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I’m working with Laravel & Vue a lot these days, so mostly Laracasts. But honestly I just haven’t really had the time to invest in learning recently. It’s something I’d love to dedicate more time to though.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

The action/filter system really is quite good and unique to WordPress. It makes extending WordPress really that simple, which is great since it allows people to start writing code in moments.

What is one surprising thing you’ve learned while building a software service?

It’s as hard as everyone says 🙂 Juggling 100 different things at once, wearing the hat of a developer, designer, marketer, CEO, etc. all at once is truly difficult. But also, more significantly, it’s truly fulfilling. Building something from scratch into something that puts food on the table, without relying on any one individual or company is an amazing feeling. On top of that, working with some of my amazing customers to hear about how Metorik helps them grow their own businesses is very inspiring and motivating.

Is there a lesson you’ve learned since starting Metorik that would have saved you a lot of time or headache if you had already known it before starting the project?

I can’t think of any specific lesson, but I try not to hold too many regrets, so not really. Probably just that building an entire app is hard, and maybe I would have spent more time learning about all the technologies I use beforehand, but I didn’t really have much time as I wanted to get started the second I could.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Build stuff. Anything. Learn, of course, but turn that knowledge into something tangible.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I used to own a few motorbikes/dirt-bikes and loved it!

Thanks Bryce!

If you want to learn more about selling a software as a service and you’re looking for a six month head start, make sure you register for Lessons Learned Building a WordPress SaaS.

Meet Kyle Maurer, WordPress Expert

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Brian R.

Kyle will be presenting Mastering WordPress Troubleshooting. You can join us for free for the live broadcast on Friday, January 20, 2017 at 1pm EST. You can also purchase the recording to watch at any time for just $19 (or $9 if you’re reading this before the broadcast).

During this session, Kyle is going to show you how to tackle any and every difficult bug you might encounter with a WordPress website, whether you currently understand the problem or not. By the time the presentation is done, you’ll be equipped and ready to identify, research, and solve even the trickiest of website bugs.

Without any further ado, here are Kyle’s answers to my interview questions.

Where can we find you on the internet?

https://realbigplugins.com
http://realbigmarketing.com
http://kyleblog.net
Twitter: @MrKyleMaurer
Github: brashrebel
WP Slack: brashrebel
Post Status Slack: kyle

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I wrote a poem about that once over on my w.org profile. I also wrote a really long story over here on HeroPress.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

Post Status Notes keep me very informed of everything important happening in WordPress. I also routinely peruse managewp.org and wptavern.com for more news. But probably my best source of information is podcasts. I listen to many different podcasts (and co-host a couple) on many topics. Some of the more educational variety which I enjoy include WordPress Weekly, Apply Filters, Shop Talk Show, Post Status Draft, Art of Value, Kitchen Sink WP, Startups for the Rest of Us and a few others.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

WordPress is packed with hundreds of things we take for granted. The user roles and capabilities system and multisite are so awesome and powerful. But I also love little things like get_plugin_data() and all the other core functions which power the plugin system.

What is your most frustrating thing to debug/troubleshoot?

Humans. When it comes to WordPress though, email issues are typically quite tricky just because there’s so many points at which something can go wrong. Others would definitely be anything that requires waiting as a part of the troubleshooting process like cookies, caching, crons, DNS propagation, etc.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Paying for WP Sessions is a great start. But really, “expert” is an elusive and lofty title. It isn’t easy to become an expert in anything. My advice would be to work hard to immerse yourself in things that really challenge you and maybe even scare you. Hate public speaking (of course you do, everyone does)? Do that. Speak at local meetups and WordCamps. Those events will challenge you to become proficient in a topic and will work wonders for your self confidence. Also partner with others on ambitious projects that are just a little beyond what you already know. Avoid what’s easy. Make yourself uncomfortable.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

m a pretty long time, die-hard fan of the Michigan Wolverines and the Green Bay Packers.

Thanks Kyle!

If you want to learn more about troubleshooting your own problems and how to save yourself both time and hassle, make sure you register for Mastering WordPress Troubleshooting

Meet Justin Sternberg, WordPress Expert

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Brian R.

Justin will be presenting Custom Meta and Settings with CMB2. You can join us for free for the live broadcast on Friday, May 29, 2015 at 3pm EST. You can also purchase the recording to watch at any time for just $9.

During this session, Justin is going to talk about how you can leverage the incredible work that has gone into the CMB2 library to quickly and easily create custom meta inputs for all of your different post types. What’s more, CMB2 can also be used for creating settings pages, managing user meta, and even for creating visitor-facing forms on the front-end of sites. It takes care a of a lot of tedious work, leaving you time to take care of the important things.

There aren’t enough nice things I can say about how great and genuine Justin is as a person. He’s the perfect person to have at the helm of the CMB2 project as he takes a very pragmatic approach to problem solving. I’ve had the privilege of knowing him for a number of years now and it is my absolute pleasure to host him here on WPSessions. I can only hope you’ll someday get an opportunity to know him as well as I do!

Without any further ado, here are Justin’s answers to my interview questions.

Where can we find you on the internet?

http://dsgnwrks.pro
http://jtsternberg.com
https://twitter.com/jtsternberg
https://www.facebook.com/Jtsternberg

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I began working with WordPress around 2009 as I was looking for a cheap CMS solution to use for our church’s website.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

Usually I keep a log of things I want to learn and as resources float in front of me (via things like Twitter, or JavaScript Weekly, etc), I bookmark them so that when I get a chunk of time to research and learn a new thing, I have a backlog of resources to pull from.

Also, when it comes to getting some advice about WordPress-related questions, having a crowd on Twitter to poll is immensely valuable. Other than that, it’s the usual: google, stack-overflow, digging into the source code, etc.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

How flexible it is. There are so many awesome nuggets you can find just digging through core. My appreciation for that in core has been the driving philosophy behind the development of CMB2.

How did you inherit the codebase for CMB2?

I began using the original, Custom Metaboxes and Fields for WordPress by Jared Atchison, Bill Erickson, and Andrew Norcross. I loved the utility-belt nature of the library, but found there were just a few things I thought would make it really killer… I started submitting pull requests, and after a few of those Jared offered to give me commit access.

After taking over and driving development of that library for over a year, we (WebDevStudios) approached Jared about transferring the project over to us. It wasn’t much longer after that we decided to completely revamp the library, and CMB2 was born.

What is the most interesting thing you’ve made using CMB2?

I think the story|ftw plugin is a pretty cool example of what you can do with it.

What does the future hold for CMB2?

The road map is long and arduous… We have many goals like allowing wysiwyg fields to be repeatable, making repeatable groups more robust, Adding a tabbed UI, Adding customizer and widget support, etc, etc. The list gets longer every day. 🙂 My overriding goal is to continue to refine CMB2 and sand down the rough edges. There’s only so much time in a day, so contributions are welcomed and encouraged!

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Practice, practice, practice. Just start building plugins and releasing them. Who cares if there’s already one out there.. if yours does something just a little bit better or different, release it. You’ll be surprised by A) how many people will appreciate it, B) How many bugs can exist in software 🙂 and C) how much you can learn by releasing code publicly. Also, It’s never too early to try and start contributing to WordPress core. You’ll never have a higher-caliber group of people looking over your code than when contributing to an open source project, especially one as established and popular as WordPress. Oh, and did I mention practice?

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I am a licensed minister, so I could marry you or bury you. 😀

Thanks Justin!

If you want to learn more about how you can use CMB2 in your own projects to save yourself both time and hassle, make sure you tune in for Custom Meta and Settings with CMB2

Meet Konstantin Obenland, WordPress Core Contributor

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Brian R.

Konstantin will be presenting Creating Themes with Underscores. You can join us for free for the live broadcast on Thursday, May 14 at 8pm EST (UTC-4). You can also pick up the recording to watch at any time for just $9.

During this session Konstantin is going to talk about the 1,000 hour head-start that you can get from utilizing the _s starter theme. And, even if you’re not interested in working with that theme specifically, you’re going to learn a lot of best practices and considerations you should utilize when building/editing a theme for any project.

Konstantin was kind enough to answer our interview questions so that you can learn more about what makes this WordPress core contributor (and project lead for the 4.3 release) tick. Enjoy!

Where can we find you on the internet?

I mostly blog at konstantin.obenland.it and you can find me on most services by my last name, obenland, like Twitter, GitHub, etc. I prefer to limit my Facebook to actual friends, and try not to treat it like another LinkedIn.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I got started in 2009 when I was working on a friend’s website. My brother and I wanted to build it with our custom PHP framework and were looking for a nice-looking backend. WordPress had that in version 2.7 and so I copied its HTML and CSS to work on top of our framework. After two days of doing that I was fed up and just used WordPress itself to build the site.

It’s still live by the way: http://crazystunters.de/

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

Mostly online tutorials and manuals. A lot of times I also buy books to get a more in-depth understanding of a topic.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Definitely its plugins and themes system. It makes it so easy to extend WordPress – one of the major contributors to its success over the years. I’m sure the majority of WordPress dev, including me, started by either fiddling with theme code or writing a small plugin to scratch an itch.

What first attracted you to WordPress themes?

Nothing really. To this day I consider myself much more a plugin developer than a theme author. What got me started with themes was that I was looking for a good way to give back to the community and at the time felt like reviewing themes for the WordPress Theme Directory would be the most impactful way to contribute.

Reviewing themes taught me what a good theme should look like, which let me contribute to Twenty Twelve in a meaningful way. So the answer to your question would probably be that it was attractive because it was easy to understand.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Find a way to contribute!

Never in my life did I learn as much as in the five years since I joined the WordPress community and started contributing to core.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

Not sure how interesting it is, but part of how I learned English was by memorizing and translating Eminem lyrics.

Thanks Konstantin!

If you’d like to hear Konstantin’s insight on creating excellent WordPress themes make sure you watch Building Themes with Underscores.

Meet Scott Bolinger, WordPress Expert

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Brian R.

Scott will be presenting Building Mobile Apps with WordPress, which you can watch LIVE on April 23 at 4pm EST (UTC+4). If you can’t make the live broadcast, the recording will be available for just $9.

During his presentation, Scott will teach us how to leverage the WP-API to create entirely custom JavaScript-based interfaces for WordPress. He’ll then take this and some other tooling to compile it into native iOS and Android apps. It’s a really smart process and the end result is just cool.

I had an opportunity to ask him a few questions this week. Check out his answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Twitter: @scottbolinger
Personal: ScottBolinger.com
Business: AppPresser.com

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I started doing client work using WordPress around 2008, then started a premium theme company in 2010. I founded AppPresser in late 2013.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I’ve learned a lot from code academy, lynda.com, and Treehouse, but mostly just trying stuff and when I get stuck Google it.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

The new WP-API of course! [Ed. Still a stand-alone plugin, soon to be a core feature of WP]

What attracted you to mobile app development?

I’ve always been interested in mobile web, and mobile apps were the next level. I decided to make a run at it, even though I knew nothing about apps. I’ve learned a ton, my favorite part is the UI for mobile. The transitions, animations, menus, interactivity, etc. can be so beautiful and intuitive if you do it right. The mobile web just doesn’t have that.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Do it all day every day, and hang around people smarter than you, and you’ll get there slowly. WordCamps and meetups are a great place to learn.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I traveled the world for 6 months with my wife when we first got married, I have a music degree, and I’ve completed a marathon in under 4 hours.

Thanks Scott!

If you’d like to hear more from Scott, specifically about doing some really cool stuff with WordPress, then you’ll want to check out Building Mobile Apps with WordPress.

Meet Chris Ford, Design Expert

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Brian R.

Chris will be presenting during the Design for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on September 20. During her presentation, Chris will teach us how to build products that people love to use, and that other designers and developers will love to work with and recommend. Are you building products in any capacity (websites, plugins, themes, even services)? Chris’s talk is for you.

Check out her interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

I blog mucch less regularly that I’d like to at creativityincluded.com. Probably because I tweet way more frequently than I want to @ci_chrisford.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I’d been a web designer since 1996, but for three years I took this weird side road into being a professional scrapbooker (yes, that’s a real job). I designed a series of idea books for a major manufacturer and created the brand and publication design of a scrapbooking magazine. I also art directed several issues. During that time I met a lot of really cool women who owned their own photography studios, kit clubs and manufacturing companies. One of them, Pink Paislee, wanted me to build a website using WordPress and a Revolution theme. The rest is history!

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I read like, constantly. Blogs, Twitter, Medium, books–pretty much anything and everything I can get my hands on. If you’re interested in seeing what I’ve been interested in lately, here’s a recent reading list:
Design is a Job by Mike Montiero
The Art of the Pitch by Peter Coughter
The Year Without Pants by Scott Berkun
Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown

I also like to talk with people who are smarter than I am, so I go to local Meetups and WordCamps to have actual face-to-face discussions. I love being in the same room with people like Chris Lema, Wes Chyrchel, Jessica Barnard, James Archer, Taylor Aldridge, Bryan Monzon and Thom Meredith and getting to talk about everything from Minecraft to horror story authors to teaching techniques.

I think constantly learning is the best part of my job. Everyone you meet has something to teach you if you listen and are open to it.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

My favorite feature of WordPress is modularity. I’m a designer. I can write code, and I have written code, but it’s not what I love to do, and it’s not what I’m best at. It’s a necessary evil, at best–so being able to install Gravity Forms and use conditional logic to build a form that solves a design problem without having to write a Perl script makes me happy 😀 (Yeah, I’m old enough that I had to do that on a lot of projects. It sucked.)

What attracted you to design?

I was always a storyteller. In the 7th grade I was co-editor of the yearbook and was introduced to proportion wheels and proper croppers. In high school I was on the newspaper staff and was introduced to a Macintosh and Aldus Pagemaker. I took drawing and painting classes my first go-round in community college. But it wasn’t until I went back to school in my mid-20’s that I knew I was going to be a designer. I was taking a bunch of general ed classes so I could transfer to a four year university, and added a graphic design class because it sounded like a fun break from everything. I went in to a class taught by Candice Lopez and knew I’d discivered what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I promptly dropped all of the other classes and took a full load of design courses.

What is your favorite aspect of design?

Telling a story. I use the words “visual language” a lot, because to me, that’s what design is–telling a story with color and rhythm and contrast and type. When I was younger, I wanted to be an author or a journalist. I still write a lot of my own copy and enjoy the challenge of writing a really good headline, but my best stories are told visually.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Practice. I see so many people who want to become an expert in a year. When I was scrapbooking, people would come up when I had a computer at an event and ask me how I got so good at Photoshop. They’d always looks so disappointed when I’d tell them “Well, I’ve practiced eight hours a day for the last 15 years.” Even when you have a natural talent, the more time you spend practicing it, the better you’re going to be. Another bit of advice is to be a sponge. Hang out with people smarter than you. Ask questions. Observe. And finally, once you know something fairly well, teach other people. Nothing has made me think about how and why I do things quite like sharing it with other people in a class or presentation.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I took Roller Derby classes a couple of years ago. I learned how to do a 180 degree knee spin, baseball slide and whip. There is nothing that feels as awesome as skating so fast you’re just on the verge of losing control 😀 I loved it because it taught me I was capable of doing so much more than I ever thought I could.

Thanks Chris!

Make sure to get your ticket for “Design for Developers” so that you have an opportunity to ask Chris questions of your own during the live event.

Meet Michelle Schulp, Design Expert

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Brian R.

Michelle will be presenting during the Design for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on September 20. During her presentation, Michelle will teach us how to talk like and talk to designers, explaining many of the nuances of design language and how designers work. Do you want to work with better designers? This talk is step one.

Check out her interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Business: http://marktimemedia.com

Personal: http://mynameismichelle.com

Twitter: @marktimemedia

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I’d heard of WordPress back in college but didn’t start doing any work with it until maybe 2010? I attended a WordPress session at the CMS Expo, and later my first WordCamp (Chicago 2011) and became hooked. The more I learned (and the more involved I became with the community) the more I wanted to work with it! I guess you could say I drank the Kool-Aid 🙂

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

For all topics I have an interest in (design, web, and WordPress included) I have a core library of actual books that cover a lot of the high level education. Outside of that I’ll typically turn to a combination of Google and People I Know to find answers. I’ve got a list of trusted design and WordPress sources that I know I can find quality answers from online when it’s for work, otherwise it’s sometimes a bit of a trip down a rabbit hole to see what I can learn!

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

My favorite thing about WordPress is the Template Hierarchy. One I wrapped my mind around how it worked, I realized how powerful it was. The ridiculous amount of flexibility and granular control it gives you over the display of content without having to hack or break anything is fantastic. The fact that it allows you to create new page templates, child themes, etc. has enabled me to build some pretty custom sites for clients for a reasonable cost. And the fact that many plugin developers are emulating this functionality for their own templates is pretty awesome too.

What attracted you to design? What is your favorite aspect of design?

I’ve actually been doing visual things my entire life, whether through traditional art mediums or on the computer (one of the first programs I ever used was Kid Pix when I was in preschool). But though I did “art” for all of my life, I was always much better at technical execution (drawing what I could see) than personal expression (drawing what I felt or thought). What attracts me to design is that it isn’t really “art,” but visual problem solving. You still need a strong sense of aesthetics, but it’s for a specific goal. I think the fact that design is as much social, economical, and psychological as it is aesthetic is one of my favorite things about it.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

1) Get involved now. Whether that’s attending meetups, hanging out on the forums, showing up at WordCamps, speaking, teaching, whatever your local or online community is doing. Being involved helps get you name recognition for sure, but it also gets you a network of people that can help you OR that you can help! Yay community!

2) Read read read! There are so many great online resources- blogs, news sites, magazine articles, the Codex- and several books available written by prominent community members. If listening is more up your alley, there are lots of podcasts as well. There’s almost TOO MUCH information out there about WordPress! So you can definitely find resources that suit your needs.

3) Be active on Twitter. I know it can sound kind of lame to people that don’t know what I mean (140 characters? Really?) but I have gotten so much help, feedback, support, and even work referrals from the community members and friends that I converse with on Twitter, as well as solidifying relationships with people I have met at WordCamps.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m a band/marching band geek. Played flute and piccolo through college, where I had the opportunity to perform in such awesome places as Carnegie Hall and the Great Wall of China. I still have my flute and pick it up on occasion.

I also like to occasionally paint (and sometimes sell) impressionist versions of iconic things, like cityscapes or scenes. Right now I am on a sci-fi kick and I’m going to do more in this series 🙂

Here’s my shop: http://mynameismichelle.com/shop

Thanks Michelle!

If you’d like to hear more from Michelle, specifically about “How to Speak Unicorn” and understand common design terminology and methodology, make sure you get your ticket for “Design for Developers”

Meet Natalie MacLees, Design Expert

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Brian R.

Natalie will be presenting during the Design for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on September 20. During her presentation, Natalie will teach us about functional design and how it’s even more imperative than aesthetic design (both are important). Our users are NOT robots, so we should be designing our tools to be used by real humans.

Check out her interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Business site: http://purplepen.com
Personal site: http://nataliemac.com
Twitter: @nataliemac
Facebook: /nmaclees

Those are probably the best ones. 🙂 Of course there are like 100 more, but that’s the stuff I use most often.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I got started with WordPress in 2005 when a client requested a blog she could use for her poetry and photography. I did some research and decided WordPress seemed like a good direction to take. I modified Kubrick to make her a ‘custom’ theme and the site is still live today. 😀

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

If it’s something completely new to me that I’ve never done before, I like to start with a book. If I’m looking to further my knowledge on something I already have some familiarity with, I’ll usually stick with blogs, podcasts, and community. I love reading Little Big Details, Sidebar, WP Beginner, WP Tavern, and, each December, 24 Ways. For podcasts, I listen to Jeffrey Zeldman’s Big Web Show, Boagworld, Unfinished Business, Businessology, DradCast, UIE Brain Sparks, and WP Watercooler. For community, I like meetups, but online, I like Facebook groups like Advanced WP and Stack Overflow.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

I love that it puts the ability to add and edit content into the hands of users who aren’t proficient in writing code. When i’m creating sites for clients, I go out of my way to ensure that as much of the site as possible can be easily updated or changed around by my clients.

What attracted you to design? What is your favorite aspect of design?

I’ve always loved making things. Even as a kid, I preferred toys like Colorforms, Fashion Plates and LiteBrite to toys like dolls. I desperately wanted to go to design school after graduating from high school, but got talked out of it and into earning a more ‘sensible’ college degree instead. But if you’re meant to do something, it’s going to find you, so I found myself designing stuff for a living anyway, even though I didn’t get the degree. I started in the world of print doing posters, flyers, catalogs, and packaging. I briefly worked designing trade show booths. Then I discovered the web and haven’t looked back. Web design wasn’t even a career option when I graduated from high school, so I had to spend time doing other stuff while the web was invented and grew popular enough to be a viable career option.

I love the feeling of solving a puzzle – working out how to tell a story, how to make a layout work, how to fit pieces together into a cohesive whole.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Get involved in the community! WordPress has one of the most open, generous, gracious, welcoming, awesome communities out there. You’ll meet person after person who is smart, cool, nice, and fun. Get out to meetups and WordCamps. Participate in online communities. If there isn’t a meetup in your town, start one!

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m an extreme introvert, which I think surprises people sometimes because I do work so hard at organizing meetups and speaking at conferences. But I’ve found that when I put forth the effort to organize a meetup or present a talk, people will approach me to start conversations and I don’t have to worry about being the one to approach people.

Thanks, Natalie!

If you want to see Natalie present “Your user is not a robot: Bringing design thinking to your development process”, get your event ticket today!

Meet Brad Williams, WordPress Expert

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Brian R.

Brad will be presenting during the Security for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on May 31. During his presentation, Brad will teach us how to properly escape and sanitize data to protect against the vulnerabilities demonstrated by Chris’s presentation.

Check out his interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Twitter: @williamsba
Blog: http://strangework.com
Biz: http://webdevstudios.com

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I started using WordPress in 2006 when I created my first blog. Being a developer, there’s only so long you can use a piece of software before you want to explore under the hood. I started hacking away at some plugins and the rest is history.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

There are so many great resources out there for WordPress. I generally just search for what I’m trying to do on Google. I also dive into the WordPress core code pretty often to really learn and understand how various parts of WordPress work. Believe it or not, I also consult my Professional WordPress books to refresh my memory on different WordPress APIs and functions. When I first started WordPress development I frequently hung out in the #wordpress IRC channel on freenode. Over time I went from asking questions to answering them. It was a great way to learn.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Tough question, but probably custom post types. When CPTs were officially introduced in WordPress core, the game changed. WordPress became a full-fledged CMS that could rival many of the other popular open source platforms on the market.

What sparked your interest in web security? How did you get from there to here?

Web security becomes a big part of your life if you’ve ever had a website hacked. I had experience with this very early on in my web development career when a site I created from scratch was hacked using a very basic SQL injection technique. The thought of losing everything you have worked so hard to build should scare anyone into wanting to be more knowledgeable about web security and how to prevent hacks and exploits.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Get involved! Attend local meetups and WordCamps. Interact with the community. Talk to other users, developers, designers, really anyone that is doing what you want to do. The WordPress Community is so open and friendly, everyone truly wants to help each other, and is very open to doing just that. Reach out, you’ll be surprised at the response you’ll receive.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I joined the United States Marine Corps right out of high school and became a Marine Corps computer programmer. I did one tour in Kuwait and Iraq in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom. During that time I actually programmed in a wartime environment with a gas mask on. I’ve had that skill listed on my resume ever since. 🙂

Thanks, Brad!

If you want to see Brad present on sanitizing, escaping, and validating data, get your event ticket today!

Meet Chris Wiegman, WordPress Expert

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Brian R.

Chris will be presenting during the Security for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on May 31. During his presentation, Chris will teach us about the many types of vulnerabilities that plague the web, what they do, and why you need to care.

Check out his interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Work: http://ithemes.com
Personal: http://chriswiegman.com
Twitter: @ChrisWiegman
WordPress: https://profiles.wordpress.org/chriswiegman

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I started dabbling in WordPress in about 2008 or so while working for Southern Illinois University. I started really using it in projects in about 2010, also for SIU.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

Google and blogs. I keep a long (400 site) list in Feedly which keeps me up to date with what’s going on and helps me both find new things to learn and expand on those topics.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Easy barrier to entry. It’s one of the few projects that really can be brought up in about 5 minutes and rarely has issues in that respect.

What sparked your interest in web security? How did you get from there to here?

My first interest in security wasn’t web security. It was aviation security. My first day as a professional pilot was 9/11/01 which really got my attention for the first time. When I left flying and returned to SIU in 2007 to work in tech the university was experiencing numerous security issues with their sites and I vowed that it wouldn’t happen to my department. Everything just kinda spiraled from there.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Just do it. Put yourself out there and be willing to give back while listening to both your role-models and others.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m probably the only pilot who can say I’ve gone through a 6.7 earthquake in the airplane. I was giving a safety briefing to passengers before takeoff at an airport about 15 miles north of Kona on the Big Island when the 2006 Hawaii Earthquake hit.

Thanks, Chris!

If you want to see Chris present on understanding web security exploits, get your event ticket today!

Meet Tony Perez, WordPress Expert

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Brian R.

Tony will be presenting during the Security for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on May 31. During his presentation, Tony will walk us through how to professionally clean a site after it has been hacked.

Check out his interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

You can find me at @perezbox on Twitter, and find insights at the Sucuri Blog: http://blog.sucuri.net

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I got started with WordPress in 2010, I was introduced to the platform and its community by my brother-in-law, Dre. At the time I was in Technical Architect designing enterprise systems for the Department of Defense (DoD). Working on a specialized technology known Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

When I want to learn something I turn to my technical advisor, Google, and as of late I have been turning to to Twitter as well. When it’s WordPress related I go to websites like WPBeginner, WP101, and how could anyone not go to Chris Lema’s website.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

I like how easy to use WordPress is, it’s actually why in 2010 I opened a design / development shop with Dre, CubiTwo. Having worked for years on closed systems I knew first hand how hard it was for clients to adopt web applications and usability and ease of use was key. When I saw how easy WordPress made this for the end-user I knew it was a step in the right direction.

What sparked your interest in web security? How did you get from there to here?

Interestingly enough, I first got into Web Security in 2008 / 2009 with DoD when I was tasked with putting together security documentation for our applications. I actually hated the entire process, but if you have ever worked with the DoD you understand why – it’s red tape hell. It wasn’t until the beginning of 2011, when I was invited to join the Sucuri team that I gained a much deeper appreciation for website security specifically. The challenge with things though was that I was going from one industry to another, for those that have ever done that, you know how challenging that can be. Unlike school though, it’s amazing how much you learn and absorb when you’re really interested and passionate about something. While not a developer, I quickly got into the domain of testing proof of concepts, leveraging toolsets, and really working to understand attackers and their tactics. Somewhere in this process I was so acclimated with the entire process that it became second nature, it’s really unclear at what point that was.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

In terms of giving advice on how to become an expert, my number one recommendation is not to work to be an expert. Work to learn your trade, the best experts are those that don’t categorize themselves as an expert, instead aim to learn their trade and work to produce something of value for the world. This can happen in months or years, stick to it and have more confidence in yourself than anyone else.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m a pretty adamant Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner and love to compete when possible.

Thanks, Tony!

If you want to see Tony present on how to clean a hacked site, get your event ticket today!

Meet Glenn Ansley, WordPress Expert

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Brian R.

Glenn will be presenting during the eCommerce for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on April 19. During his presentation, Glenn will walk us through the best way to develop add-ons for iThemes Exchange.

Check out his interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Twitter: @glennansley
Work: iThemes.com

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

Been working with WordPress since 2004 when I stumbled into web design during grad school.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

Google, books.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

I enjoy the hooks API the most. I think the hook API is what sets WordPress apart and made it so popular… even though most users don’t it exists.

What is your favorite Exchange feature/aspect?

It’s modularity and the simplicity that creates in the admin screens.

What is the most significant thing you’ve learned about ecommerce over the past 5 years?

eCommerce encompasses a ton of niche areas that you wouldn’t expect at first glance and making all those work together is very complicated.

What is the one tip you would give anyone considering to add ecommerce to their site?

Make a list of the features you need and find the solution that works best for you. If multiple solutions work, make sure you pick on that supports its customers well

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

If you’re already a PHP developer, find time to read every line of the core WP source code in the evenings when you would usually spend time reading. Familiarity with core will be your tipping point.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I have a wife and 4 kids. I constantly have to remind myself that work is the distraction and not them.

Thanks, Glenn!

If you want to see Glenn present on developing for iThemes Exchange, get your event ticket today!

Meet Daniel Espinoza, WooCommerce Expert

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Brian R.

Daniel will be presenting during the eCommerce for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on April 19. This is actually Daniel’s second appearance on WPSessions (read his first interview). This time around he’ll be talking about building extensions for WooCommerce.

Check out his interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

I blog at http://daniel.gd
I’m on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/d_espi
And Google+ at https://plus.google.com/+DanielEspinoza1/

What is your favorite WooCommerce feature/aspect?

I love how easy it is to setup and get selling. Also, I like the one page checkout.

What is the most significant thing you’ve learned about ecommerce in the last 5 years?

I’ve learned that people should focus on product and customer first. I built several ecommerce sites for customers between 2008 and 2011 who focused mostly on the custom design, but they are no longer in business. The ones that focused on what they were selling and who they were selling to are still going strong.

What is the one tip you would give anyone considering to add ecommerce to their site?

For physical products spend money on great product photos. Whenever I buy online I want to see what I’m buying clearly and from many angles. Also, if available in your country use Stripe as your gateway!

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

My wife and three young kids are moving toward being nomadic. We sold our house and are traveling around the world, currently two months in Europe. We still have an apartment in Texas, but may not renew our lease and become totally nomadic.

Thanks, Daniel!

If you want to see Daniel present on developing for WooCommerce, get your event ticket today!

Meet Andrew Munro, WordPress Expert

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Brian R.

Andrew will be presenting during the eCommerce for Developers session, which you can watch LIVE on April 19. I invited Andrew to speak about building add-ons for Easy Digital Downloads because he has written over 20 of them.

Check out his interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Website: http://sumobi.com

Twitter: @sumobi_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sumobicom

GitHub: https://github.com/sumobi

PS, @sumobi, if you’re reading this, I’d really like to drop the underscore on my Twitter handle.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

My first foray into WordPress was in 2010 when WordPress 3.0 had just been released. Up until that point I had been using ExpressionEngine (EllisLab) as my CMS of choice for client websites. I started by using the Genesis Framework (StudioPress), which was excellent, but I discovered it shielded me from knowing how a lot of things work in WordPress. Not to say it’s bad of course, but I wanted a deeper understanding of WordPress.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

wordpress.stackexchange.com has always been immensely helpful when I’ve been either stuck or wanting to learn something new. I haven’t needed to post a question in a very long time, guess I’ve learnt a lot!

By far the best resource has been other developers’ plugins. Scouring through the code of another plugin is fascinating. Not only do you always learn something new, but you discover a more efficient way of doing something that you can then apply to your own plugin development.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

I like to get my hands dirty so for me it’s the extensibility that WordPress provides through action hooks and filters. Provided that a plugin developer has added sufficient hooks/filters inside their plugin, they provide immense power to anyone wanting to extend the functionality of that plugin. They’re also very easy to learn!

What is your favorite Easy Digital Downloads feature/aspect?

Again, the extensibility of the plugin and the clean, well-structured code. Easy Digital Downloads recognises the need to be extensible whilst focusing on doing one thing right: selling digital downloads. It has a plethora of useful hooks and filters, and at the time of writing there are well over 200 add-ons available, all built on top of Easy Digital Downloads.

What is the most significant thing you’ve learned about ecommerce over the past 5 years?

If you intend to sell products online, be prepared to get extremely cozy with your chosen e-commerce platform. Suggest features and ideas to the developers, help other customers in the forums, contribute bug patches and write plugins if you can. I honestly believe that the strength of the e-commerce platform directly correlates to how well your online store does. The e-commerce platform is what helps you put your products in front of your customers, and ultimately how your customers will pay for your products.

What is the one tip you would give anyone considering to add ecommerce to their site?

Do your research and choose your e-commerce platform wisely. Spend time with it to make sure it can do everything that you need it to do. If it can’t, make sure it has add-ons that can, or there are developers who can build it for you. An e-commerce platform with great technical support will also be crucial to the success of your business.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Study the inner workings of your favourite WordPress plugins, the ones you trust and use for every project. Try to extend their functionality to do something unique for your purpose. If you happen to find a bug, try and fix it yourself rather than opening up a support ticket. You’ll be amazed at how fast you learn, not to mention that warm fuzzy feeling when you give something back.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m glad you didn’t ask for a “non-computer related” fact, as this answer would be empty! As much as I love to code, designing websites and logos is also a passion of mine. Being able to take a project from start to finish is exciting. I also like to dabble in 3D modelling, which I find fascinating. I even have one of those fancy 3D mice and a drawing tablet. I’m proud to say I haven’t used a standard computer mouse in 14 years.

Thanks, Andrew!

If you want to see Andrew present on developing for Easy Digital Downloads, get your event ticket today!

Meet Benjamin Bradley, WordPress Expert

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Brian R.

Benjamin presented in the eCommerce for Site Owners session, which is available for immediate replay right now. Benjamin gave us an incredible walkthrough on using iThemes Exchange. If you think there’s no such thing as a simple solution to ecommerce, you clearly haven’t heard enough about iThemes Exchange.

Check out his interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

You can find me just about anywhere. But like the cobbler’s children never getting new shoes, my sites are not updated unless I’m testing new code or trying something out. I’m the man behind the microphone at WebDesign.com, so you can normally find me there. I’m also at http://www.benjaminbradley.com and http://b.enjam.in. On Twitter: @benjaminbradley.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I’ve been involved with WordPress since the code was split from the b2 blogging system. It has come a LONG way since then and is fascinating to watch the expansion.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I’m a trial and error kind of guy. I’m always trying new things and discovering new ways to break the internet and my computer. I’m a big believer of learning as you grow. So I’ll jump on Google to research an idea and then just run with it… learning while I grow.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

My favorite aspect of WordPress is the extensibility. Using WordPress as the base or “foundation of the house”, the end result can be constructed to do just about anything. We used to do a fun type of class at WebDesign.com where members would find a function or type of site that exists on the internet (not powered by WordPress) and I would reproduce that functionality or look USING WordPress.

What is the most significant thing you’ve learned about ecommerce over the last 5 years?

The most significant thing I’ve learned about ecommerce is that it is like an iceberg. It looks simple on the surface but the moment your site/boat gets closer you realize how much larger that iceberg is under the surface. There are tools that can help “simplify” the ecommerce process but don’t let that lull you into a false sense of confidence. I’ve always told freelancers that the moment a client requests an ecommerce site, just triple your rate your were going to charge them.

What is the one tip you would give anyone considering to add ecommerce to their site?

My biggest tip for anyone wanting to add ecommerce capabilities to their OWN personal site would be to use what works for you. Just because “everyone uses X” or “my co-workers 12 year old ‘webmaster’ son says Y is the bomb” doesn’t mean it will work for you. Try things out, read about different systems, and find something that YOU like to work with. Because at the end of the day, only you are going to be working with the code… not that 12 year old and not everyone else. Also, you might want to know your “restrictions” or “limitations” before you begin your search. If you absolutely must use a certain payment gateway, well your decision making process may already be made up for you.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Get involved in the WordPress community. Sort of like how Smokey the Bear says that “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Well… Only you can make yourself become a WordPress expert. Nobody else is going to give you that crown. Read all you can, experiment with code, do ACTUAL client development, write articles, review themes/plugins, attend WordCamps and speak at them, hang out in the “Happiness Room” at a WordCamp, get involved in a WordPress community. Only you can do it.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m a firefighter/paramedic here in the Washington DC area. And a few years ago when I was doing a live training event at WebDesign.com (which the Global Broadcasting Studio is in my house), I heard a massive explosion that shook my house. I told everyone on the live training that we were going to take a short break and I ran outside to see my next door neighbors house had exploded into a massive fireball (boiler exploded). I spent the next few minutes providing “first due” engine feedback to dispatch and removed the older couple from the house. Ten minutes later, I hop back on the live training call and let everyone know that during the break, I rescued a family and their cats from a burning building but its now time to get back to learning Custom Post Types. (We have a lot of funny stories at WebDesign.com).

I have to say, none of my “we need to take a quick break” stories are even remotely as intense as that. Thanks, Benjamin!

If you want to see Benjamin present on using iThemes Echange, get your event ticket today!

Meet Patrick Rauland, WordPress Expert

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Brian R.

Patrick presented in the eCommerce for Site Owners session, which is available for immediate replay right now. In his presentation, Patrick walked through installing and using WooCommerce in great detail. Hands-down, it is the best demonstration of WooCommerce I have ever seen.

Check out his interview answers below.

Where can we find you on the internet?

The best place to find me is SpeakingInBytes.com. I like to blog about whatever I’m learning at the moment. There’s a lot of WooCommerce goodness there and plenty of other tech & WordPress posts. You can also follow @BFTrick on Twitter.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I used to do a lot of customer PHP work right after college. Worst. Thing. Ever. Don’t do it. By the time you’ve coded your 3rd or 4th login page you quickly start to look for prebuilt solutions that handle all of the common content management system problems. WordPress was the easiest to setup so I went that way.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

Honestly, Twitter is the best source of news out there. I follow specific people who are leading the way in their industry and they supply me with the best articles about that industry.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Pfew – big question! I would say the customization. Everything is open source so if you like the way something works but want to tweak something you can do that! With hosted e-commerce solutions you don’t have that opportunity. You can be locked in and I like the freedom to change things if need be.

What is the most significant thing you’ve learned about ecommerce over the last 5 years?

E-commerce can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. I’ve seen successful stores who just run WooCommerce, a couple free plugins, and a free theme. I’ve also seen customers with 50+ WooCommerce plugins who appreciate every bit of value they can get out of these extensions. They send customers follow up emails, they subscribe them to newsletters, they have fancy table rates for shipping, etc. E-Commerce doesn’t have to be complex. You can start out with something simple and add on more features over time.

What is the one tip you would give anyone considering to add ecommerce to their site?

Start with the basics. Don’t plan out an entire e-commerce experience without first installing a plugin and seeing how it works.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

I’m very much a go-getter, so you just have to jump in! If you want to learn something, you do it by getting your hands dirty. Everyday try to learn something new. Push yourself to learn more and more about WordPress. If you learn some (small) thing new every day in a year you’ll know a ton.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I love acro yoga! Being able to trust and communicate with another person while you’re suspending them in the air or visa versa is an amazing experience.

Thanks Patrick!

If you want to see Patrick present on using WooCommerce, get your event ticket today!

Meet Justin Sainton, WordPress Expert

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Brian R.

Justin will be joining us for the eCommerce for Site Owners session, which you can watch LIVE on April 11 and 12. Justin will be teaching us about setting up an WP e-Commerce shop, which is especially great because he is the lead developer for the project.

Where can we find you on the internet?

zao.is is our business site, @JS_Zao on Twitter. Those are the best places to hit me up 🙂

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

Started back in 2007 building a couple non-profit websites using WordPress as a CMS. Back then, WordPress was this brave, new world to me. I had zero experience with it, but I pitched it as the “Future of CMS” to the clients, and they bought it. Happily, both non-profits are still running smoothly along on WordPress 🙂 Once I got my feet wet on those projects, I never looked back.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

It depends – I feel like I’m always in some state of learning – whether it’s with WordPress, running my business, eCommerce specifically, etc. When it comes to WordPress, I find following core development on Trac to be one of the best ways to stay fresh and always be learning something new. I also have a ton of great colleagues who are über-smart that I hit up from time to time.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

There’s so much! I think, as a developer, one of my favorite areas in WordPress is actually the HTTP API. I’ve been using it for 5+ years and I actually still learn new things about it when I dig through it. It’s such a helpful tool, especially in eCommerce.

What is the most significant thing you’ve learned about ecommerce over the last 5 years?

That it’s hard. Really, really hard 🙂 When you’re building a platform intended for usage all around the world, it can be very tricky to ensure that you’ve built something that works in all jurisdictions, across all industries, while still being a usable piece of software. Also, taxes are just as hard in eCommerce as they are in real life 🙂

What is the one tip you would give anyone considering to add ecommerce to their site?

Don’t use PayPal. If you can, use Stripe. Hire a professional, because reasons (See #5).

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Open up WordPress in your favorite IDE, get a cup of tea, and get to know it. Really spend some time in the source code. If you’ve ever wanted the magical ability to be able to tell the future, follow along in Trac! It’s a fantastic (albeit intense and at some times overwhelming) way to stay on top of where WordPress is headed.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

One of my favorite things in the world to do is to play the piano. I’m not that great at it, but man, I REALLY enjoy it. Also, I have an incredible wife and three beautiful kids – all of whom make me varying degrees of crazy. 😀

Thanks Justin!

If you want to see Justin present on using WP e-Commerce, get your event ticket today!

Meet Mika Epstein, WordPress Expert

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Brian R.

Mika will be joining us for the eCommerce for Site Owners session, which you can watch LIVE on April 10, 11 and 12. Mika will be teaching us about setting up an Easy Digital Downloads shop and sharing from her personal experience of running an ebook store.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Personally: http://ipstenu.org

WordPressily: http://halfelf.org

Everywhere I am, I’m ipstenu 🙂 It means Epstein.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

Around 2007, seriously. Before that, I used WP 1.5 and played with it, but 2.1.2 was the first version I seriously used for more than just blogging. Basically I’d broken my old script, and needed a way to cross-post to livejournal.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I usually learn something new out of necessity. I need to do something, I can’t, I learn. I’m very haptic, though, so I learn by doing and breaking and blowing up. I call it the Ms. Frizzle style of learning, because I know I’ll make mistakes, but I feel like I understand everything better in the end. I read a lot of examples too. I’m the person who thinks the “Hello World” examples are perfect.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Extendability! I love that the basic system works, and I can add what I want. When I started using WP, I had been using MediaWiki and a couple other systems. I was always turning things off because I didn’t need them or want the overhead. The lean and mean WordPress install was magical.

What is the most significant thing you’ve learned since creating an ecommerce shop?

People WILL pay for products, even if you offer them a free option. And they’ll pay more often than they would if you give it away and let them pay later. Basically people are way more honest than DRM seems to think.

What is the one tip you would give anyone considering to add ecommerce to their site?

SSL is for everyone, even if it’s hard. You make your mark by being trustworthy, and HTTPS means (generally) you’re safe. Except for the Heartbleed thing. I’ll talk about that in my session!

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Have fun. I never set out to being an expert, I just wanted to write and post news. I became an expert in the things I did because I’m good at them. But you don’t HAVE to code like Helen to be a WordPress expert. Find what you’re good at and enjoy, embrace it.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m a member of the SCA – Society for Creative Anachronism – which means I spend my weekends playing pretend with my friends and it’s totally awesome.

Thanks Mika!

If you want to see Mika present on using Easy Digital Downloads, get your event ticket today!

Meet Drew Strojny, WordPress Expert

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Brian R.

Drew will be joining us for the Building a Membership Site session, which you can watch LIVE on March 29. Drew will be joining Chris and Shawn in a panel discussion, answering your questions about the ins and outs of running a membership site. Drew has a particularly unique vantage point because he has run his own successful sites AND also runs an incredible membership platform called Memberful. Don’t miss this opportunity to ask him questions!

Where can we find you on the internet?

The Theme Foundry: https://thethemefoundry.com
Memberful: https://memberful.com
Twitter: @drewstrojny
Github: dstrojny

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

Back in 2008 most of our small business clients needed a website they could manage themselves. They certainly didn’t want to be paying us every time a change needed to be made. I had been using WordPress for our own site and I figured it would be easy enough to teach them how to use it too.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I’m very much a do it yourself learner, and I’m lucky there is so much great information available on the internet for do it yourself learners. I usually dig into the subject matter at hand and try to find some experts in the field to research and look up to.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

I can’t name a specific feature (lots of great features to choose from), but I love the extensibility and flexibility of WordPress. It gives you the power to do so many things quickly and easily with your website. It’s also very reassuring to know the software is continuously being improved by the WordPress.org developer community.

What is one piece of advice you have for someone building a membership site?

Don’t wait! Planning a complex strategy isn’t a good use of your time. Your most avid supporters and readers are going to sign up anyway, even if you offer them nothing in return. They’ll pay you because they want to support your work. Nothing more. If you already have an audience, every day you wait to start your membership site is costing you money.

The first step is to get some simple membership software like Memberful set up with your website, and announce that option to your loyal supporters. Use the announcement post to plan out what you’ll offer and solicit some feedback from your community. Most importantly, this will get you selling right away. It will also lay the groundwork for offering some paid content in the future.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Learn by doing and watching others in the community. Contribute to WordPress is some way and start attending WordPress events. The WordPress community is accepting and friendly, so find a mentor to help you get more involved.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I played football at Duke University and was a 2 time captain of the football team. I was then picked in the 2004 NFL draft and spent 3 years bouncing around the NFL as a journeyman lineman with a handful of teams. It didn’t end up working out as a career choice, but it was an amazing life experience. I got to watch Super Bowl XXXIX from the sidelines in 2004 and have an NFC Championship ring to show for it.

Meet Chris Lema, WordPress Expert

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Brian R.

Chris will be joining us for the Building a Membership Site session, which you can watch LIVE on March 29. During his presentation, he will walk us through a multitude of excellent tools, platforms and services for running membership sites. By the end, you should know precisely which setup will be best for your needs.

How and when did you get started in software?

I started working with software as a database and systems analyst in 1994. It was at Berkeley Lab and we were just starting to play with the Internet and browsers and what we could do with them.

What compels you to try so many new and different tools?

A lot of people are really good at using the tools they know. But I find the real value – for others – is when you’re aware of which tools are best of the job – which is less a function about knowing one really well, and more about knowing the differences between them, so that you can make the best decision possible.

What is one piece of advice you have for someone building a membership site?

Start simple and small. Make sure you solve non-technical issues like attrition before investing tons of money into software solutions.

You seem to have a lot of great advice. Where else can we read your opinions on membership sites and software and other things?

I write regularly at chrislema.com

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I wrote my first software application when I was seven – copying hundreds of lines of code out of a magazine.

Meet Shawn Hesketh, WordPress Expert

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Brian R.

shawnhesketh Shawn will be joining us for the Building a Membership Site session, which you can watch LIVE on March 29. He’ll be teaching us the lessons he’s learned from running a wildly successful membership site over the past 5 years and, in particular, the things he wished he had known before starting.

Where can we find you on the internet?

I’m nearly always “on” via Twitter @leftlane, but you can also find me on Facebook or Google+. And I blog infrequently at ShawnHesketh.com.

You can follow @WP101 on Twitter as well, in addition to its own Facebook and Google+ pages.

Oh, and I’m always open to helpful pull requests for the WP101 Plugin at: https://github.com/leftlane/wp101plugin

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I started designing websites in 1994, using WYSIWYG apps like Adobe Pagemill. As my skills and the complexity of my clients’ sites increased, I migrated to more powerful apps like Adobe GoLive and Dreamweaver. But by the mid-2000s, clients began to request the ability to edit their own content, using their web browsers, and after attempting to learn several CMS systems, I was relieved to discover WordPress 2.3 in late 2007.

Compared to Joomla, Drupal, and Expression Engine, I found the WordPress UI to be super-intuitive, and thankfully, so did my clients. So I began recommending WordPress for nearly all my web design projects, and with very few exceptions, I’ve never looked back.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I think I learn about most WordPress resources via Twitter, and thanks to the many talented WordPress developers who are willing to share their discoveries and hacks, it’s a gold mine of learning. But I also subscribe to Post Status, WP Tavern, and Torque, which is where I often hear about new WordPress products and services.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Honestly, the best “feature” of WordPress is actually the community itself. Like so many others, I turn to Google whenever I’m stumped, and I’m surprised how often I land on tutorials by the über-talented Carrie Dils, or Bill Erickson. I’m grateful for the help that’s readily shared by others within the WordPress community, and I’d be lost without their help!

But I think my favorite aspect of WordPress itself is simply its extensibility. I can’t remember the last project I worked on that didn’t make use of at least one Custom Post Type, and these days, there just isn’t much that you can’t build within WordPress.

What is one piece of advice you have for someone building a membership site?

Assuming you’ve already validated your idea for the membership site in the first place, my top piece of advice is to give careful consideration to the platform on which you will build your site. Will it be around for the long-haul? What payment gateway(s) does it support?

The most challenging thing we’re currently dealing with is migrating from older membership plugins that are no longer being actively developed, and the fact that we’re stuck with thousands of recurring subscription profiles in PayPal. Migrating to a new membership plugin now requires some tricky custom coding, since all those PayPal IPN notifications will break in the process, requiring us to re-invite all our members to re-subscribe on the new system. Don’t get stuck like we did!

Read everything my friend Chris Lema’s written about membership sites and make an informed choice that will serve you and your members for years to come. I’m also blogging about the lessons I’ve learned along the way, in hopes of helping others avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way.

But even more important, never lose sight of the fact that it’s all about people. Whether you’re building a membership site around a hobby, shared interest, or how to build a successful online business, ensure that every piece of content you create and every single interaction with your members is helping you build long-lasting connections and relationships that will encourage, empower, and enable folks to accomplish their own goals. In the end, it’s all about them… not you!

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

In my experience, one of the best ways to become more proficient in WordPress is to start answering questions for others. Often, their questions will drive you to look for answers you might not otherwise have come across on your own. Whether it’s answering questions for your own clients, at your local WordPress Meetup group, or helping people in the WordPress.org Support Forums, nothing else will stretch your own knowledge quicker!

You may not consider yourself an expert, but remember… wherever you are with regard to your own WordPress skills, there’s someone else who could benefit from you’ve learned.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

If you follow me for any amount of time, you’ll quickly learn that I’m a bit of a cigar aficionado, and I’m always down for a nice cigar and a glass of Scotch with a late-night conversation. But many people don’t know that I’m also a huge sports car enthusiast, having raced a Mazda MX5 for years in our local sports car clubs. We also watch just about every Formula 1 or IndyCar race on TV, and we try to attend almost any race within a day’s drive. If it goes fast, I’m probably a fan!

Meet Adam Pickering, WordPress Expert

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Brian R.

Adam will be joining us for the Running a WordPress Business session, which you canwatch LIVE on February 15. He’ll be teaching us about how he built a theme shop that has morphed from niche to niche, becoming even more successful with each iteration.

Where can we find you on the internet?

On twitter as @adampickering_

[Ed. Adam’s current theme shop, Astoundify, is among a select few reputable sellers selling amazing themes on ThemeForest]

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

Back in 2008, when I saw a need for band WordPress themes, there wasn’t really anything out there that looked decent. At the time, I was working with a band as their sound engineer. They wanted a website, so I decided to create a set of WordPress themes for bands and called it BandThemer.com. They ended up using one of the themes so it was a great place to start with WordPress.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

The ability to make almost any type of application or website. If you can think of an idea you can built it with WordPress.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I usually search for new projects on GitHub to see what others are working on, and also check out sites like hacker news, designer news, and https://news.layervault.com/stories to see whats trending and to keep fresh.

What is one piece of advice you have for someone looking to start a business?

Don’t let fear hold you back. Try something completely new and innovative when starting a new business. Think about how you can make a new spin on an old idea or create something that has never been done before.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

If you’re looking to get into WordPress, reach out to others in the industry to see if you can collaborate on a project or create a plugin or theme that extends an existing platform. I think if you can collaborate with others you can reach a larger audience than trying to do it all by yourself.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m really into cooking. I spend time most evenings creating new recipes i’ve seen on television shows or something I’ve seen online. It’s a really great way to relax.

Meet Matt Medeiros, WordPress & Business Expert

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Brian R.

Matt will be joining us for the Running a WordPress Business session, which you can watch LIVE on February 15. He’ll be teaching us how to build an audience and a community around your business and services. This presentation is particularly important for anyone who is afraid to market or sell themselves.

Where can we find you on the internet?

You can find my podcast at: http://mattreport.com
You can find my company site at: http://slocumthemes.com
You can find our Web shows at: http://youtube.com/slocumstudio
You can find my mentorship site at: http://wpmentor.org
You can find me on Twitter as @mattmedeiros

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

In my previous career, I was Director of Product at a local ISP for 6 years. One of the companies we acquired had a web design arm back in mid 2006 that built using Drupal. I was tasked to lead that division and it became very clear to me that Drupal (at that time version 5) was too complex for the client’s we were working with. I discovered WordPress and The Standard theme around that time and have been using WordPress ever since.

From there, I started my own company with my Father called Slocum Studio. Today, we offer WordPress development and design services, themes and support.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

From a business development standpoint, it’s super flexible and can solve many issues for many verticals. We can build amazing blogs, e-commerce stores and custom web apps for different needs. I truly believe WordPress will be an OS for the internet.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I’m fortunate to have a great team at the agency lead by Scott Sousa and I lean on his expertise very heavily. When we’re researching something new or brainstorming a new feature for a theme or plugin, it literally starts by the writing on the wall.

We start sketching out the new ideas, how we envision the flow and design and start rapid prototyping. It’s a team effort to build new “stuff” on WordPress.

What is one piece of advice you have for someone looking to start a business?

I’m going to take the cliche route that I once mocked: Just do it and don’t be embarrassed of your first version.

You will fail.
You will pivot.
You will learn.

It’s a continuous cycle when you’re growing organic.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Tune into podcasts and get involved with the community. Don’t get overwhelmed, find yourself a mentor or start following some smart folks on Twitter. Engage them, but don’t hound them. Absorb the conversation going on around you and stay curious.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

Probably the most interesting thing is that I started this company with my Father — something a lot of folks are surprised to hear. It’s not our first business together either. For most of my life we worked together at a Chevrolet and Cadillac dealership he owned.

Meet Andrew Norcross, WordPress Expert

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Brian R.

Andrew will be joining us for the Running a WordPress Business session, which you can watch LIVE on February 15. He’ll be telling us what it’s like to leave a stable job to run an independent business (and how simultaneously great and terrible it is to make that decision). If you’re looking to venture out on your own, this session is not one to miss!

Where can we find you on the internet?

Usually twitter (@norcross), since that’s the only social network I actually use. I occasionally jot stuff down on my personal site (andrewnorcross.com) and post weird stuff to tumblr (x.norcross.co). Oh, and when it’s business time, reaktivstudios.com.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

About 7 years ago. I had built a server and had to install something on it. After fighting with Movable Type for a few weeks, I got WP up and running and haven’t looked back.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

This is an instance where the sum is greater than all the parts. While I love certain parts (combining CPTs, taxonomies, and meta data), the fact that I can dig through and find the best tool inside of WP to accomplish what I want is fantastic. I rarely feel limited.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

It usually starts with needing to accomplish a specific goal. Once I have an idea of what I want, I start with the ol’ Google to see what else is out there. I look for plugins that may already exist, or other folks who have tried to do it. At this point it’s more mastering specific parts than learning something completely new.

What is one piece of advice you have for someone looking to start a business?

Get your shit in order. my own experience, and many others I’ve spoken with, is that when it gets moving, it goes FAST. If you don’t have your house in order (admin stuff, taxes, workflows, etc.) you’ll struggle a lot more than you’d otherwise have to. Get a good foundation and you can build as needed.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Don’t try to become an “expert”. Try to learn your craft the best you possibly can, and figure out where your way of solving problems matches up with the overall needs and opportunities of the community.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I spent almost 10 years in the banking and finance industry, and didn’t write a line of PHP (or HTML or CSS, for that matter) until I was 26.

Meet Brianna Norcross, Accounting Expert

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Brian R.

Brianna will be joining us for the Running a WordPress Business session, which you can watch LIVE on February 15. She’ll be teaching us about the ever-important business side of running a business (the when and how of hiring a project manager, how to avoid tax-time hell, and et cetera).

Where can we find you on the internet?

Business site: Reaktiv Studios
Twitter: @sarcasmically

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I used WordPress for blogging for a few years before I met Norcross, but got into the business side of it when we decided to grow Reaktiv. It was clear some sort of management (both financial and project) was necessary, and Andrew was not interested in doing that, so that end of the business fell into my lap– in the name of bootstrapping our biz– and it turns out I’m not terrible at it (or the devs aren’t brave enough to tell me), so I’m still here.

What is your favorite thing about accounting or project management?

REPORTS. Analyze all the things. It’s the most fun.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

For accounting, the IRS.gov website is wicked fun. It is the most helpful government website. For WordPress stuff, I don’t. There was a time I tried to learn the basics so I can help out the devs if necessary but I think we’ve all realized it’s just better if I just… don’t. I do love Treehouse and Code Academy for those times I feel like I should know a little bit of code.

What is one piece of advice you have for someone looking to start a business?

Plan. PLAN. Have at minimum a clear idea of what you want, and if you’re really on top of it, have an idea of the best way for YOU to get there. I know things will change but you have to go into it with something other than “I want to make lots of money!” Also, keep in mind that YOUR best way to get there may not look the same as another company’s best way to get there. That last point been the biggest lesson I’ve gotten from running Reaktiv this past year.

What advice do you have for others looking to become accounting/project management experts?

I’m going to defer to accounting/project management on this one again. I’ve never met anyone who wanted to become a finance/project management expert, but if they did I’d say you’re going to need a bunch of books and a client/company who doesn’t mind you just seriously (temporarily) messing up their books for a year while you learn.

What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I used to work for a company that leased semi-trucks/trailers and I spent a lot of my time repossessing 18-wheelers from angry truck drivers across the nation. Most fun I ever had at a job, hands-down, and really suited my TVMA (foul language, extreme situations) personality. When I became pregnant with my daughter, my bosses tried to pitch a show about me, pregnant and pissing off/outscheming truckers nationwide, to [pick one of those “reality TV” type channels]. Super trashy, and I’m so glad nothing ever came of that, because I’d hate to have to laugh at myself FOREVER.

Meet K.Adam White, WordPress Expert

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Brian R.

Join K.Adam White for WPSession #5: WordPress Unit Tests on Saturday, November 30. He’ll be talking about JS Unit Testing.

Where can we find you on the internet?

My personal site is kadamwhite.com, but updates aren’t exactly a daily occurrence. You can more reliably find me over on Twitter as @kadamwhite, or track me down on GitHub or Flickr. I work for the amazing folks at Bocoup, an Open Web technology company in Boston — we’re over at bocoup.com (@bocoup on Twitter). Check us out on the web, or if you’re in Boston drop by for a meetup, training, or just to grab a coffee!

When and how did you get started with WordPress ?

Some time in 2006 I was sitting in our college cafeteria and saw a friend updating a really cool-looking website. I asked her what she used to run it, and she told me WordPress. I got my own site up and running on our house server in early 2007, and went from there. I returned to WordPress after graduating, when I began picking up web design work from my friend Joey Brunelle, founder of Goose Rock Design. I began to teach myself PHP, then jQuery, and WordPress lead me into all the programming roles I’ve held since.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I’m lucky enough to work for a company where I am surrounded by amazing coworkers who don’t shrug off questions and curiosity, so I soak up as much from my team as I can. As a consulting engineer at Bocoup I get to work with a variety of clients, which keeps me exposed to a range of new technologies. And of course I love attending conferences and meetups—I’ve never come away from a conference or WordCamp without a list of new friends, and new things to learn!

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

I used to say the ecosystem, meaning the flexibility of plugins and themes: If you want to do X in WordPress, you’re pretty likely to have a choice of X 1, X2 , and X3, if not more options . These days I think I’d have to say the philosophy, though. The strong guiding principles of the project (and the lead team’s dedication to upholding them) sets an example for other open source projects to follow.

What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned/discovered while unit testing?

Unit testing makes me consider more angles as I code. When you’re thinking about every input/output scenario, you catch edge cases and weird conditions earlier, and sometimes you find ways to optimize the code. Writing a test this summer lead to removing an entire module from our app, for example: Once I tested it, I realized it wasn’t doing anything useful!

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Keep an open mind; get to as many in-person events as you can; smile; listen; ask “why” when people tell you what to do; and try ignoring their advice at least once, to see what breaks!

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

Coding is still only the second-most-fun paying gig I’ve ever had! I DJ’d in college, and (while I don’t play much these days) I still love finding new interesting blends of musical styles. At one point, I was pretty sure I had the largest bagpipe techno collection in the midwest!

Meet Alison Barrett, WordPress Expert

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Brian R.

Join Alison for WPSession #5: WordPress Unit Testing on Saturday, November 30!

Where can we find you on the internet?

My development blog: http://alisothegeek.com/
Twitter: @alisothegeek

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

In 2008, I was working at a small agency in Minneapolis, where I was one of two web developers. I discovered WordPress somehow—I can’t remember what led me there—and I decided to try it out on a client project at work. We started building all our client sites on WordPress after that.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I usually turn to blog posts I find through Google. Before working at Automattic, my WordPress education was almost exclusively through blogs and online tutorials. Since joining Automattic and becoming more active in the WordPress community, I’ve made lots of friends that I can go to for help, too!

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

For me, nothing beats empowering the user to put their own content on the web using WordPress. Even though I’m not working with clients in an agency atmosphere anymore, I still remember how great it felt to see a small business owner or manager of a non-profit realize they could put content on their new site without a developer’s help. Getting your message online is a powerful thing, and WordPress lets anyone do that.

What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned/discovered while unit testing?

My favorite moments in unit testing are when running or writing the tests reveals a problem with the code I didn’t see before. It feels great to know that the extra work of writing out unit tests pays off like that.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Consume all the information you can. Read tutorials, find blogs, and follow other WordPress experts on Twitter. Play around on a local WordPress installation. Read core code. The more information you take in, the more you’ll be able to do and figure out on your own. Chances are you’ll be considered an “expert” long before you believe it yourself.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

Learning drives everything I do as a hobby. Right now I’m learning to speak Spanish. My favorite games are those that have a steep learning curve or take practice to master. When I read, it’s usually non-fiction books; the fiction I do read is sci-fi/fantasy because I love learning about these complex imagined universes. I recently re-read the MYST novels and reignited my passion for the language from the videogames (D’ni). In college, I spent an entire summer learning how to solve a Rubik’s Cube without needing to memorize turn sequences. I’m a nerd when it comes to learning.

Meet John P. Bloch, WordPress Expert

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Brian R.

John will be joining us on November 30 for the WordPress Unit Testing session. He’s also a pretty smart guy 🙂

Where can we find you on the internet?

My employer, 10up, can be found at 10up.com and my personal site is johnpbloch.com. I can also be found on twitter@johnpbloch. I suppose I’m on Google+ too, but I don’t actually use it for anything but hangouts.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I got started with WordPress in 2008 when a group of friends and I started a blog together and decided to migrate off of blogger to a self-hosted WordPress installation.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

That depends on the subject, but generally Google, which leads me to Stack Overflow/Exchange. When it comes to languages, I generally check for a Learn Code the Hard Way book first. Those books are phenomenal (and generally free!). For unit testing, my go-to resources are (in this order) Eric Mann, The Grumpy Programmer’s Guide To Building Testable PHP Applications, The Grumpy Programmer’s PHPUnit Cookbook (the last two both written by Chris Hartjes), and the PHPUnit docs. Finally, I also try to avail myself of the wealth of knowledge that is the WordPress community. There are a lot of brilliant people out there and most of them are happy to answer your questions and give you pointers. You just need to engage the community in good faith and you’ll find your way.

On a more practical note, if you just follow Brian Krogsgard and follow everybody he retweets you’ll be off to a good start. 😀

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

wp-admin/admin-post.php. Best super-obscure part of WordPress. I’m always finding new and crazy ways to use it that still blow my mind.

What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned/discovered while unit testing?

We, as developers tend to have a cognitive bias against simplicity. We all know that programmers are known to tend to over-complicate things, but unit testing large codebases will teach you an entirely new definition of complexity. Sometimes even a function that looks very simple belies a complexity that good unit tests will very quickly uncover.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Read through the runtime execution of WordPress. Seriously. Go line-by-line reading what WordPress does from start to finish through an execution. Try to find all the hooked functions and read through them at the right place. It will open your eyes about what actually happens inside.

Use version control

Turn XDebug on and get interactive debugging and script profiling working

Finally, just DO. Build. Tinker. Play. Break. Iterate

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I studied English Lit in college and was teaching myself how to build websites at the time out of pure fascination. I can recite the first 11 lines of Beowulf in Old English. W.H. Auden, Wallace Stevens, and W.B Yeats are awesome.

Meet Brad Parbs, WordPress Expert

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Brian R.

Brad will be joining us for WPSession #4: WordPress Theme Bootcamp on September 19th, 2013.

Before you get too far into reading this, I want to give you the same warning Brad gave me. His answer to the bonus question at the end answer might just be the best answer ever, so be prepared (and don’t skip ahead).

Where can we find you on the internet?

The best place to find me is SnowDayGroup.com & BradParbs.com. I tweet at @BradParbs.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I got started with WordPress a few years ago while working at a web development company. We were making simple sites, and needed a way to build out sites quickly and easily. We were using a custom-coded PHP CMS that was very insecure. WordPress let us give our cusomers an amazing experience, and it was easier for us to use, too!

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

The first place I always go is to the Codex. The amount of amazing information there is great. If I’m developing some custom functionality for a client, and I don’t know where to start, I’ll usually look at a few other plugins doing similar things to see how they were done.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

My favorite thing about WordPress isn’t a feature in the code – it’s the Community. The fact that things like WPSessions can even exist is because of all the awesome people in the WordPress community. As someone who runs a local WordPress Meetup group, I’ve gotten to see people progress from just being introduced to WordPress and then getting to the point where they’re giving talks about it. No other community has the breadth of information, resources, and everything else that the WordPress community has. It’s really, really amazing when you take a step back and look at it all.

What is one thing you wish you knew about WordPress themes when you were getting started?

The thing that really tripped me up when I first starting making WordPress themes was the template hierarchy. I remember always struggling with it. I always had to use the Debug bar to look at what file was being loaded, and then guess what I should name the new one. After I learned how the template hiearchy actually works inside of WordPress, I started feeling so much better. I could finally create the files I needed to have really quickly. The template hiearchy is a very powerful beast.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

If you want to be a WordPress expert, there’s two things you need to do. First, you want to surround yourself with smart people that know more than you. I do this by going to as many WordCamps as I can, as well as helping organize my local Meetup group. By forming these connections, you’ll have an indispensible resource of people that you can ask questions, learn from, and potentially collaborate with.

The second thing you need to do to become a WordPress expert is keep pushing yourself to do more things. If you’re a theme author, build a plugin that you can put on WordPress.org. If you’re a plugin author, build a theme to release. The more projects you can work on, either for clients or for yourself, the better you’ll be. If you are scared of using something in WordPress, just do it. The worst thing that will happen is that you’ll fail. And we all fail. It just means you have to keep working at it and learning more. The awesome thing about doing something new is that you get to learn a whole ton of stuff!

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

Probably stuff about cats.

Meet Lisa Sabin-Wilson, WordPress Expert

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Brian R.

Lisa will be joining us for WPSession #4: WordPress Theme Bootcamp on September 19th, 2013.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Business: WebDevStudios.com
Personal: LisaSabin-Wilson.com
Twitter: @LisaSabinWilson

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

2003. I migrated off Movable Type onto WordPress based upon the recommendation of a friend, after they listened to me whine about having to rebuild all of my archives whenever I made a simple template or CSS change.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

You mean aside from my uber talented team at WebDevStudios?

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Inline help in the Dashboard & the help and tips you get on every screen. This is huge for users of the software.

What is one thing you wish you knew about WordPress themes when you were getting started?

How to properly enqueue scripts and styles. I wish I could go back and redo every theme I’d ever done in the beginning.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Set aside adequate time in your day/week/month to keep up.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I am an avid football fan. NFL: Packers.

Meet Paul Clark, WordPress Expert

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Brian R.

Paul will be joining us for WPSession #4: WordPress Theme Bootcamp on September 18th, 2013.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Slides & talks: pdclark.com
Company: brainstormmedia.com
Twitter: @pdclark

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I was working my way through college doing graphic design and computer work. I was one project away from swearing off website work altogether, because I was so tired of getting maintenance calls from clients: “Can you change this comma? Update this text?”. I wanted to be creating solutions for people, not acting as a gatekeeper to their content!

I tried WordPress on the website that I swore would be my last. It was a game changer! I finally felt like I could provide an experience to clients I could be proud of. That was in 2006. I’ve been creating sites with WordPress ever since.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I rely much less on the large publishers (TutsPlus, Smashing Magazine) than I used to. You can get so much more information by jumping in with the people who are dealing with problems every day.

I read the WordPress source, and scan through the source of new plugins I find interesting or are by authors I respect. Pippin Williamson, for example, is known for his great tutorials AND has awesome source code to read through.

Regardless of what you’re trying to learn, or where you’re going for information, there is one strategy that will always hold true, and will always get you ahead many of the people out there: If you want to learn something, break something!

You have to dig in, and you have to fail — over and over again. Once things break, go onto stackoverflow.com, or look at example solutions from great thinkers on wordpress.org. Learn from them, then find ways to make things better.

It’s much, much easier to pump out a hacky solution than to read through someone else’s code, understand it, and adapt it. That’s what turns people into skilled and mature programmers: putting ego aside so that you can learn before you do (and then fail… and do again).

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

The Customizer! Duh!

The new JavaScript features are a place where people working on WordPress Core have really pushed the envelope in making use of modern techniques. The new Media Library (with backbone.js) and the Customizer are awesome examples of this. Because of all my time spent with the Styles plugin, I’m partial to the Customizer. 🙂

What is one thing you wish you knew about WordPress themes when you were getting started?

Oh man… I don’t know if I could narrow it down to just one! Let’s do three:

A lot of the things you might put into functions.php should probably go into a plugin. There’s no difference in how the code operates, but packing features into individual plugins will increase your re-usability, stability, and make it a LOT easier to identify what your code is doing (because you have to write a description!).
Understand the template hierarchy. I see programmers doing somersaults all the time to achieve things that are built into the naming conventions of a WordPress theme. A lot of flexibility can be achieved just by naming your files correctly.
Look at the body classes. Again, I see programmers frequently go to great lengths to target styles for some custom post type or home page element… When really all they need to use is .home or .page-id-5.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Read the source (of WordPress, and of plugins). Break something every day.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

Again with only one? I’m going to do three again. 🙂

My wife and I have an Irish Wolfhound. They’re super-sweet, but super-huge!
My favorite way to relax is Boxing.
When I started freelancing, I was sleeping on couches in my college dorm lobbies. When I started growing the team at Brainstorm Media, I was maintianing relationships with clients in America while working nights in Southeast Asia. That’s the awesome thing about working on the web — you can get started from anywhere!

Meet Sara Cannon, WordPress Expert

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Brian R.

Sara will be joining us for WPSession #4: WordPress Theme Bootcamp on September 16th, 2013.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Work: http://ran.ge
Personal: sara-cannon.com
Twitter: @saracannon

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I learned basics of HTML while in Design School and started diving head first into web design. I found WP around 8 years ago while doing non-profit work. I was looking for great free solutions. I stumbled upon Joomla but then wanted something better- which lead me to find WP.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

Google 😉

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

I love how you can customize and organize metadata so it can display beautifully on the front-end.

What is one thing you wish you knew about WordPress themes when you were getting started?

I wish I knew to not be intimidated. Once you understand the basics, it’s easy to catch on 🙂

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Never stop learning. Always be curious as to why things work the way they do.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m a visual artist. I love painting, drawing, and sculpture. 🙂

Meet Aaron Jorbin, WordPress Expert

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Brian R.

Where can we find you on the internet?

My personal site is aaron.jorb.in and I use aaronjorbin just about everywhere. Github (github.com/aaronjorbin) and twitter (@aaronjorbin) are the two best places to keep up with what I’m working on. I work on all things front end for Privia Health (www.priviahealth.com)

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

My first exposure to WordPress was in 2007 when a few friends and I built a satirical site based around the idea of future news. From there, I found small projects on craigslist ($25 to move from one host to another) that slowly built to people hiring me for custom plugins, themes and sites. After about two years of this, I started to follow core development and tried to become a part of it. A few rejected (and rightfully so) patches later, I finally was able to get some code added to core. now 3 years later I’m still contributing patches when I have the opportunity.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

My friends and coworkers are my biggest bringers of knowledge. I rarely have to search out new knowledge, I just have to start chatting with them, see what they have recently starred on github or look at what they are tweeting.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

I love the plugin api. Actions and Filters makes it incredibly easy to build so much.

What is your favorite development tool and why?

Unix. I can’t tell you how many times cut, time, grep, cat, |, or nc are all I need to figure something out.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Read the source and start contributing. Find bugs and fix them. The more intimate you are with WordPress core, the more you’ll be able to writ code that is forward compatible.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I spend my free time volunteering as a Simulation Director for a collegiate Model United Nations conference.

Meet Daniel Bachhuber, WordPress Expert

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Brian R.

Daniel will be joining us for WPSession #3: Performance Driven Development on August 4th, 2013.

Where can we find you on the internet?

daniel I’m the Senior Engineer at Human Made, an uniquely-awesome agency headquartered in the UK. We split our time between client work and products like Happytables and WP Remote.

Generally, you can find me on:
Github – Specifically the Human Made and WP-CLI repos.
Twitter – Links and snark.
My blog – WordPress and personal.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

Oddly enough, my first WordPress site still lives on. A buddy and I wanted to get our student newspaper on the web, so we created a WordPress.com site for it. It served our needs for roughly six months, then we went about setting up a WordPress.org install. I can’t claim any credit for it, but The Pioneer has gone on to win a few awards for their online presence.

Also funny in hindsight: I distinctly remember scratching my head the first time someone tried to explain to me how The Loop works 🙂

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

It really depends on what I’m working on. If I’m approaching an entirely new technology, API, etc., I’ll do a bit of research (aka Googling) to see if anyone has written a nice introductory post to it. Otherwise, it’s straight to the documentation, then on to see if I can apply it.

Specific to WordPress, learning how to read core is a godsend. If I ever have a question about how something works, it’s straight to the code.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

The usability of the WordPress admin. It’s the lingua franca for managing content. When working on a project, as long as I stay within WordPress’ UI conventions, I hardly ever have to explain how a feature works to an end user.

What is your favorite development tool and why?

Salt (and Vagrant). I know I should say WP-CLI, which has also changed my life, but the Salt / Vagrant combo has radically changed my development / deployment workflow.

Salt is a way of describing a server with easy to use YAML configuration files. Vagrant makes it possible to boot that server locally.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Find someone you can work on a project with (open source or otherwise) who will tear your code to shreds. Literally.

Criticism is the only way you’ll become a better developer — hubris gets in the way of learning.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’m (hopefully) running 41 miles around Mt. Hood in a few weeks!

Meet Zack Tollman, WordPress Expert

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Brian R.

Zack will be joining us for WPSession #3: Performance Driven Development on August 4th, 2013.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Zack Tollman I am a developer with The Theme Foundry and you can see all of our awesome themes on thethemefoundry.com. I write about WordPress things on tollmanz.com and tweet from @tollmanz.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I think I first installed WordPress in 2005 or 2006. I was initially intimidated by it because it was such a large project with so much code. I took a closer look at it later in 2006 when I became fed up with writing a custom content management system (CMS) solution for a client. I knew that WordPress provided this for you out of the box and decided it was time to learn how to use it to power my sites rather than waste more time trying to build my own custom CMS.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I usually turn to people. I have found that building relationships and mentorships with people who can do things better than me is a really rewarding experience. In the WordPress community, we are extremely lucky to have WordCamps all over the world, which enable and foster these types of relationships. The friendships that I have made at these conferences (as well as other places) have been the single biggest asset to me as a developer.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Currently, I am in love with the ID3 tag support for audio files that will be released in WordPress 3.6. If you have an audio file that is properly tagged, WordPress will read this data upon upload and make it available to you. It even adds an embedded album cover as a featured image for the attachment. Huge props to Scott Taylor (@wonderboymusic) for this significant contribution.

What is your favorite development tool and why?

Git is my favorite development tool. After starting to use it on a daily basis, I’ve come to view it as a tool and not a version control system (VCS). It has some extremely powerful features (e.g., bisect, reflog, merge strategies) that give you a lot of flexibility with and insight into your codebases. I could give up a lot of development tools, but definitely not Git.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Go to WordCamps. Talk to people. Do not build stuff alone. Be open to criticism and feedback. Solicit criticism and feedback. Give criticism and feedback. Trust your instincts. Do not forget to sleep.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I love hockey.

Meet Cory Miller, WordPress Expert

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Brian R.

Cory will be joining us for WPSession #2: Building a WordPress Busness on July 13th, 2013.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Cory Miller My focus is on iThemes, so iThemes.com. I blog about entrepreneurship, marketing and career advice at my personal site at CoryMiller.com. Tweet @corymiller303. Oh, and if you want to see just cute pics of my adorable infant son, Caloway, then http://instagram.com/corymiller303 🙂 #proudpapa

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

In 2006 when I started a professional blog and wanted to do more with it and found WordPress. I was hooked at how easy it was and wanted to learn how to tweak my site design.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

I eat books.

If I’m not learning, I’m dying … and reading books in particular (along with blogs) is the best way to learn new stuff.

I post my reading list here: http://corymiller.com/reading/

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Being able to get a blog started in 5 minutes. The ease of use of WordPress has always been my favorite feature and hope that never changes. It’s what has made WordPress great.

What is your favorite business-related book and why?

I can’t pick just one, man. 🙂

I believe entrepreneurship is one of the ultimate ways to find true work-life alignment. So here are my recommendations for that.

Start with Why by Simon Sinek — a great book to start your pursuit of purpose and passion in your work
On Writing Well by William Zissner — foundational book on writing, if not THE best desk reference, and yes, even web designers need to write well
Rework by Jason Fried — the new way and philosophies of work on the web
Content Rules by Ann Handley — foundational desk reference on content that sells — order a print copy to put on your shelf and give to clients
Do the Work by Steven Pressfield — just do it, a true motivational book we circulated throughout our entire team
Total Money Makeoverby Dave Ramsey — get your finances straight and a healthy perspective on money so you can do what you love
The Leadership Challenge – James Kouzes — if you’re going to have employees, start reading this now
Never Get a ‘Real’ Job by Scott Gerber — motivation on launching your business for a younger generation
Standout by Marcus Buckingham — learn more about yourself
StrengthsFinder by Tom Rath — learn more about your strengths and how to use them (also great for teams)
Success for Dummies by Zig Ziglar — just good, down home advice
The Brand You by Tom Peters
12: Elements of Managing by Rodd Wager — even if you don’t manage anybody, see 12 great principles of how you and I work best
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No by Cloud and Townsend – establish good boundaries in your relationships and free yourself to be happy
Crush It! by Gary V — great book to pump you up if you’re considering starting your own business
Free Agent Nation by Dan Pink — the rise of the indepent worker
Drive by Dan Pink — learn how instrinc motivation works … and what really motivates you in your work
The Great Workplace: How to Build It, How to Keep It, and Why It Matters
The Guerrilla Marketing Job Escape Plan
Guerrilla Marketing for a Bulletproof Career
Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod – straight up great advice
Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future
Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives
The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman – the founder of LinkedIn talks about approaching your career as a startup
Tribes by Seth Godin — tribes are everywhere – learn how to start, build and lead them
Writing That Works: Learn How to Communicate in Business — a desk reference for your career
The Dip by Seth Godin — when to quit or keep going
The Janitor by Todd Hopkins — a great story about putting work and life in perspective
Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform by Nancy Duarte
slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte
Presentation Zen by Gary Reynolds
ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett — ignore the title, these guys are the best at blogging
Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success by Penelope Trunk — great, sharp, awesome career advice
Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Immersion.

If you want to become an expert you have to immerse yourself in the subject. If it’s WordPress that means these things:

USE WordPress. Know it inside and out. Blog with it. Build sites with it.
Embed yourself in the community. Go to WordCamps. Meetups. Or start one in your city.
Bleed the brand. Champion WordPress everywhere.
Find problems people have with it … and solve it for them. Whether it’s a service or a product, or just installing WP for them.
Play nicely with others. Meaning don’t get consumed in DramaPress. This is software. It helps us do things better. Remember, it’s about people. WordPress won’t show up at your funeral. But people will.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’ve got 33 hours of seminary training. Extra bonus: I’m a pretty dang good snow skiier.

Meet Carl Hancock, WordPress Expert

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Brian R.

Carl will be joining us for WPSession #2: Building a WordPress Busness on July 13th, 2013.

Where can we find you on the internet?

I do not currently have a personal site or blog as I do not currently blog. As far as social media goes I can be followed on Twitter as @carlhancock and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/carlhancock. You can find my company site at http://www.rocketgenius.com although our primary web site is the Gravity Forms site at http://www.gravityforms.com

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I got started with WordPress in 2008. I primarily used it to build client web sites while I was doing custom web design and development for clients. We began development on Gravity Forms at the beginning of 2009 and launched it at the end of the summer in 2009.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new about WordPress?

I keep up to date about what is new about WordPress a variety of ways. Twitter is one huge resource. Follow the right people on Twitter and you can gain a lot of knowledge even in as little as 140 characters.

I also browse great sites like wpdaily.co, wptavern.com (glad Jeff’s back up and running), wprealm.com, WPMU’s blog at wpmu.org, Brian Krogsgard’s poststat.us, and ManageWP’s fantastic blog.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Far and away it’s extensibility. The hooks and filters that allow you to mold WordPress and bend it to your will. It’s what allows companies such as ours to exist.

What is your favorite business-related book and why?

I don’t read a lot of business related books. Most of what I read is non-fiction, but not business related. However, a few business related books I did enjoy 37Signals REWORK, Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness, and Richard L. Brandt’s One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com.

You asked favorite, but i’m going to mention one business book that I don’t like. Tim Ferriss and his The 4-Hour Workweek. It’s great for getting you excited and pumped up to do something. But not so great at helping you figure out what that something is or how to successfully go about doing it. It was written specifically to sell books, hence the catchy title. I hate the ecosystem it has spawned with the legion of 4HWW devoted “lifestyle designers” and “digital nomads”. Building a REAL business is hard work. It’s not the vacation that The 4-Hour Workweek makes it out to be.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Be open to taking advice AND criticism from people within the WordPress community that are successful. They are successful for a reason. Don’t discount what they have to say, because they’ve been there and done that. I’ve seen a lot of that going on.

You need to be able to take negative criticism and learn from it instead of fight it. Some people seem to think they are already experts when they really don’t know a damn thing. Don’t just jump out there and think because you’ve built a theme or plugin or two that you are not a WordPress expert or that you are ready to sell themes or plugins commercially.

There are far too many people selling themes and plugins that have no business doing so and the code quality and problems they create are a testament to that. WordPress low barrier to entry is both a blessing and a curse in that regard.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I used to work in the professional wrestling industry. Obviously not as a wrestler. Primarily internet related work, ringside photography, and at times helping with booking… or writing story lines. Although I did act as a referee for a few matches on one show and was involved in an angle at the ECW Arena, which any wrestling fan would know, which saw me dragged into the ring and basically used as a prop for the finish of the match.

I don’t miss the wrestling industry at all. It’s the worst industry you could ever work in. What they put their bodies through, including the drug use most inevitably succumb too is not worth the rewards they receive. Not to mention the politics and the constant worrying that a co-worker or friend may stab them in the back to move up the pecking order, which means more money. They usually end up broke, both physically and financially.

I was friends and acquaintances with many big names in the WCW, ECW and WWF during the late-90’s and the very early 00’s. Tragically that includes being close friends with Chris and Nancy Benoit.

The movie The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke was so accurate in it’s depiction of the industry that it could have been a documentary and not a fictional film. It really is exactly as it’s depicted in that movie.

Meet Chris Lema, Business Expert

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Brian R.

Chris will be joining us for WPSession #2: Building a WordPress Busness on July 13th, 2013.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Well, it’s pretty easy to find me if you know my name. I tweet using the handle @chrislema and I write a daily blog over at chrislema.com. So those are the two places to hear what I’m thinking on a regular basis. Of course you can also get my thoughts in your email (daily at 7 am PST) if you subscribe using this link.

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I started using WordPress around 1.5 – when it introduced Pages. Once WordPress had pages and posts, it had everything I needed (at the time) to use it as more than a blog, but as a simple CMS for customers who needed quick sites that they could manage. Until that point, I’d been using a .NET open source product called DotNetNuke and it was painful. So I was glad to make the switch. Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s been eight years, but it has.

What resources do you turn to when you want to learn something new?

My approach to learning is pretty specific. The first thing I do is try to do things on my own without any instruction whatsoever. I do this on purpose to fail. But what I’m actually doing is creating experiences that real knowledge can then hang on. Without it, the real info won’t have any way to “stick” in my brain. So from there, I move to online resources where people write tutorials. I’m able to better understand them because they’re showing me where my ways were wrong, and what I didn’t understand (contextually) the first time. As for the actual tutorials, I’ve read Smashing magazine and wptuts+, along with links I get from sites like wpdaily.co.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

When done right, I think my favorite feature is the ability to easily change themes. I’ve not made substantial changes to my site in a year, but before that, for several years, I would change it at least once a year. I don’t love the feature for aesthetic reasons, so I love great design like anyone else. Instead, what I love about changing the theme is that you can adjust the interface as you increase the content. I now have 300 or 400 posts, which makes navigating thru them very different than when I had 30. I have several ebooks to sell, plus presentations and videos of my public speaking that ought to be easy to get to. So from an information architecture perspective, having an easy facility to adjust the interface as content and experiences need to change – without tons of additional migration work – is pretty amazing.

What is your favorite business-related book and why?

Roger L. Martin is an incredible individual who writes and currently is the dean of the Rotman school of management. He’s single-handedly trying to change how MBA programs are run. His book, The Opposable Mind, is one of my all-time favorites because it challenges how we think. I don’t mean it challenges us to change our position. Instead, it challenges the approach we take when thinking about competing tensions. It’s an introduction to integrative thinking that I think everyone should read.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

First, I think if someone seriously wants to become an expert at anything, they ought to be very clear that it will take time, discipline and energy. To be a student of anything is neither simple nor quick. So I’d tell them to prepare themselves.

Now, with that said, I find that a lot of people don’t want to become WordPress experts, but instead simply want to leverage WordPress to earn a living. That’s a very, very different thing. You can do that in a matter of weeks or months, I suspect.

In that case, what I recommend is simply this:
If you want to learn WordPress well enough to make a living, look to those who are already doing it. Find ways to engage them and learn from them – be it reading their blogs, buying and reviewing their products, or helping them out.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I was born in 1970. In those days, a child born three months early was given little chance to live. I was one of those children and I was lucky – because we happened to be living near a research university that had the equipment to keep me alive. I spent the first several years of my life going to a doctor weekly to see if I was brain-damaged, which they predicted and prepped my parents for. I didn’t fully grasp all of it then, but I sensed I was being evaluated. I have lived an entire life with the “impostor syndrome” and for the most part, it’s worked out for me. So I’ve worked hard every day. Proving to myself (before anyone else) that I could learn, work, and deliver. I still work hard, though I take time to play hard too.

Meet Pippin Williamson, WordPress Expert

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Brian R.

Pippin will be joining us for WPSession #1: Building WordPress Plugins on June 22nd, 2013.

Where can we find you online?

Pippin Williamson My personal tutorial site at PippinsPlugins.com and on twitter as @pippinsplugins

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I started working with WordPress around version 2.7. Unlike many, WordPress wasn’t something I instantly fell into favor with. I actually strongly disliked it when I first started working with the platform. My brother was running his personal website on WordPress and wanted me to learn it so I could modify some of his theme template files for him. It was a real struggle for me to force myself to dig into the code and figure out how everything worked. Tweaking the site header was pretty far beyond me. I don’t know exactly when the shift happened, but at some point after working on my brother’s site I realized that I loved WordPress and just wanted to learn more, and more, and more.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

WordPress core itself is my number one source. There is so much you can learn about the inner workings of WordPress (some of which you wish you could unlearn even) by just exploring the source code. Looking at the source code of well-built plugins is also just as valuable. Tutorials are great, but no tutorial will ever teach you to truly understand how something works. Start with tutorials to get a grasp of the concept, then dig into the source for real understanding.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Custom post types by far, followed perhaps by the $wpdb class. Following closely in third is probably the rewrite system for building custom URLs.

What is your favorite WordPress plugin and why?

Post 2 Post. There is no single plugin that can be applied to so many different scenarios and handle every single one of them beautifully. I’ve used it for building education course systems, related post widgets, even connecting product pages to their appropriate support forums.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Explore the core source code and the source code of successful plugins. Discover how they did things that worked really well and also how they did things that failed. Learning how not to do something is just as important or more as learning how to do it right.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I have mad skills on the pottery wheel.

Meet Daniel Espinoza, WordPress Expert

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Brian R.

Daniel will be joining us for WPSession #1: Building WordPress Plugins on June 22nd, 2013.

Where can we find you online?

Daniel Espinoza My personal website is DanielEspinoza.me and on twitter as @d_espi

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

I started freelancing five years ago after leaving a job in a bank IT department. My first projects were building ecommerce sites using Magento. A WordPress blog was usually an add-on for the projects I worked on so my first experience with WordPress was building themes to match the stores. Then a few years later I started building plugins for fun and profit.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

For non-WordPress related stuff I’ll go through a Tuts+ tutorial as time allows for things that look interesting. Most of my learning with regards to WordPress is task or project related. I’ll learn something new in the process of solving a problem for a plugin idea I’m trying to flesh out. This will usually involve reading through the codex, WordPress Answers on Stack Exchange or working with existing plugins from respected developers to see how they do things.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Does the WordPress community count? 🙂 I really love the group of people that I’ve had the chance to meet and interact with through the WordPress community.

If I can’t count the community then I’m going with the famous 5 Minute Install.

What is your favorite WordPress plugin and why?

I’m a big fan of WooCommerce since I spend most of my waking hours building plugins for it and supporting users. And yes, I was a fan before hiring on as a WooNinja.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

I’d suggest to read, write and repeat:

Read code of plugins and themes. Write your own plugins and themes using the techniques you’ve observed.
Read through tutorials and the codex. Write code using what you learned to solve real problems.
Read support questions on WordPress.org. Write helpful answers to the questions.
Read through open issues of projects on GitHub. Write code that fixes the issues and offer pull requests.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I’ve eaten a live scorpion on purpose without being dared to do so. I would not suggest doing it. Frequently asked questions: No, I didn’t get stung. It didn’t have any flavor other than dirt.

Meet Topher DeRosia, WordPress Expert

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Brian R.

Topher will be joining us for WPSession #1: Building WordPress Plugins on June 22nd, 2013.

Where can we find you online?

At derosia.com and on twitter as @topher1kenobe

When and how did you get started with WordPress?

When WordPress first came out I looked at and didn’t like it at all, and decided to make a competitor. I did, and my personal blog still runs it, but I quit advancing it in 2004, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone not named Topher. 🙂

I got pulled into a WordPress job right before 3.0 came out, and still didn’t really like it as a CMS, but then when 3.0 came out, and custom content types became a serious thing, it changed everything. I very quickly fell in love with the power of custom content types and pretty much didn’t take any non-WordPress jobs after that.

What resources to you turn to when you want to learn something new?

It depends on whether I know what I want to learn. If I know I want to learn how to use a specific function, or a process based on several functions it’s always the codex. I love the codex.

If I just have an idea, and I want to know how other people have done it I’m about 50/50 between google and asking Smart People.

What is your favorite WordPress feature/aspect?

Custom Content Types, far and away. I don’t think I’ve ever used WordPress to make a blog, so the flexibility to twist it around to do whatever I want is really really valuable.

What is your favorite WordPress plugin and why?

That’s a tough call. I really like Pippin’s Easy Custom Post Types, but I always feel guilty that I’m not making them by hand. I also really like WP Super Cache. The engineering of caching fascinates me.

What advice do you have for others looking to become WordPress experts?

Build stuff for yourself, even if it’s already been done. Even if you throw it away as soon as you’re done. Try to use as many different functions as possible, just so that the process of using them is in your head. Then someday you’re going to be working on something and think “Hey, I once used that function to do this other thing, we can use that here”.

Build build build.

Also, ask questions. There’s a fine line between annoying leach and growing rock star. That line is different for every person you’re going to ask questions of, so create relationships with Smart People. Once they know you they’re much more likely to either take time to answer your question or tell you nicely that now’s not a good time, come back later.

Most of the people I’ve come in contact with are very happy to help you understand whatever it is you’re dealing with.

Also remember that just about everyone has knowledge you don’t. Look in more places than Rock Stars for advice. I know lots of people with far less general experience than I have that have done lots of specific things that I haven’t, so for that exchange, they’re one of the Rock Stars for me.

Bonus Question: What is one interesting non-WordPress-related fact about yourself?

I grew up in a house off the electrical grid, and learned to read by kerosine lamp, just like on Little House On The Prarie. Not kidding.

Have any questions for Topher?

Ask them here in the comments and we’ll try to get them answered either now or during the session!