January 4, 2017 — Beaver Builder is a page builder plugin that allows you to visually build custom layouts in WordPress with a drag and drop interface. While that adds a lot of power to any WordPress website, the real power is in its extendability. In this talk we’ll discuss the benefits of using a page builder and how to customize Beaver Builder to supercharge your third party themes or client sites.

Presentation Slides »

January 3, 2017 — It all starts with a vision, a designer’s dream. There are no limits. It’s a developer’s job to bring that vision to reality. There are some limits. If a designer doesn’t know, understand or acknowledge they exist, it can make for a not so cool end result or work experience. By discovering where a developer is coming from, together, we can make design great again!

Presentation Slides »

January 3, 2017 — I will be going through the essential aspects of being a freelance web developer/designer in Zimbabwe covering the following subtopics:

getting started
having things in order – incorporation, taxes, legal docs
getting the right workflow
branding
misc

Presentation Slides »

January 3, 2017 — When one creates a website for a client the work is not done – websites get hacked, plugins and themes are not all compatible, and users do stupid things that break their sites. A responsible website developer has to provide ongoing support to make sure their clients’ sites stay up an running.

This can take up a lot of time that could be spent getting new clients and building new sites. But one can significantly reduce the time spent in support over the lifetime of a site by spending a little time educating one’s clients right at the start.

This talk will look at five of the most common issues/questions about which we can educate users so they don’t need to ask for support quite as often.

Presentation Slides »

January 3, 2017 — You know how the saying goes, “When you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”

As business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers we often come across projects that may seem complex maybe even overwhelming. In this talk, you will discover how to create structure around your WordPress projects to protect you from the dangers of unmanaged scope creep. There are strategies and steadfast approaches that can help turn even a failing project into a viable one if you are up for the challenge.

This session will cover:

How to structure your process for client communications
Tips to make room for innovation
How to keep the lights on by avoiding scope creep
How to turn scope creep into a positive revenue boost

Presentation Slides »

January 3, 2017 — As a WooCommerce Happiness Engineer, I’ve worked with WooCommerce stores for over two years. However, only in October of this year did I create a live WooCommerce store with physical products for the first time.

In this talk, I’ll focus on the challenges in setting up a WooCommerce store in Africa, but also on its potential and quick wins. I’ll share my experiences with handing over the project to the store owner and give some tips on setting boundaries.

By the end of the talk, you should have a good overview of the considerations when starting a WooCommerce project, especially in making sure that you can hand over to your client smoothly.

Presentation Slides »

January 3, 2017 — Beginning of this year I honestly wouldn’t be able to explain to anyone what WordPress is. I had never used WordPress until pressure mounted on me as an internship student , the company wanted the website up and running within a week. As a student who had told them “I know how to create a website”, I couldn’t give an excuse and there was no way out. Later on that day I researched on the easiest way to make an e-commerce website within a day and I learnt about WordPress. Now I can advertise website design and earn a little extra income and my boss is impressed and still talks about efforts put to meet the website deadline. My boss even offered we come back after school and make systems and another website for their subsidiary company.

Presentation Slides »

January 3, 2017 — This talk will cover not just how, but also why using a Version Control System like Git with your WordPress projects is helpful and important. You’ll see case studies, as well as a detailed tutorial, so you will will leave with knowledge on how this integration can be accomplished, as well as the confidence to integrate it into your own work process.

Presentation Slides »

January 2, 2017 — Jeff Chandler and Marcus Couch host the WordPress Weekly podcast, which covers all things WordPress. They also interview a variety people who make up the WordPress Community.

Marcus Couch has been a WordPress developer for more than 12 years. Besides being the co-host of WordPress Weekly, he is the cohost of the WordPress Plugins A-Z Podcast with John Overall. Marcus also helps people plan, develop and implement membership sites at Membership Site Coach.

Jeff Chandler launched WordPress Weekly in January of 2008. In that initial episode, Jeff talked about the release of WordPress 2.3.2 and running WordPress locally. He resides in Ohio and has been writing about WordPress since 2007 at the WPTavern. When he attends WordCamps, Jeff can mostly be found taking part in the Hallway Track.

We had a great time talking WordCamps and the WordPress Community.

I do need to apologize to Jeff and Marcus. This is the first time that I had two guest being interviewed. There are times where you can see that Marcus and Jeff’s face are blocked. I did not realize this happened until I was processing the video.

December 30, 2016 — In this episode we take a look at what is going on at Core, Plugins and Support.