April 2, 2017 — WordPress powers more than every fourth of all websites in the world, in one or more of the 6,500+ world languages. WordPress itself does not allow for multilingual content, though, so that’s where plugins come in handy. One of these is MultilingualPress: THE multisite-based free open source plugin for multilingual websites.

In this talk, Thorsten provides a short introduction to both MultilingualPress and WordPress multisite. By means of several user stories, he then explains how to set up your multilingual WordPress website with MultilingualPress.

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March 31, 2017 — Are you charging enough for your services? Chances are you’re not. The goal is not to get as much money as you can get but to be paid for the value you are bringing to the table.

When I first started out with web and graphic design I was charging pennies because I felt I was not good enough. For my first website I charged $500 and the second website I charged $0 and was later paid $1,000. After comparing my work to others on the internet I soon found others were charging $5,000 to $10,000 for a website and were not giving as much value as I was.

In this session I share my pricing journey as well as tips on how freelancers can double what they are earning by creating a process and upgrading their professionalism to earn higher value clients.

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March 31, 2017 — At WordCamp US, Matt Mullenweg offered explicit direction to the WordPress Community: “Learn Javascript.” But how do we efficiently incorporate Javascript into our theme? This talk will offer example of how Javascript tools like Gulp and Bower helped inform the “Via Nola Vie” theme, built for Tulane University. The talk will also introduce ways to keep a javascript-integrated theme inline with DRY (“Don’t Repeat Yourself”) fundamentals, without having to build complex solutions like Theme Wrappers and API dependent integrations.

March 31, 2017 — A lot of client relationships can bog down because the client can’t see what you’ve got in mind. One great way forward is in-browser mockups: demos of design elements built directly in-browser, using browser inspectors such as Chrome Dev Tools. In-browser mockups have helped me move a number of client projects from “anxious and unsure” into enthusiastic partnerships. In this talk, we’ll cover when and why to create in-browser mockups, and specific features in Dev Tools to get the most possible out of the technique.

March 31, 2017 — When timid users step up to your site and are spooked by the ghosts of content past, or those who dare to enter become lost in a maze of composted navigation, a dusting just won’t fix the years/decades of content rot. You know you need to pull everything out to figure out what you have, what to keep, and what to toss—but that can be a daunting and overwhelming endeavor.

In this talk, I’ll equip you with the tools and approaches you’ll need to face the overwhelming content beast head-on, to organize it in a way that is not only useful to your visitors, but actually feels welcoming. This talk introduces information architecture techniques, best suited for site owners, designers, freelancers, or small teams lacking dedicated content strategists.

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March 31, 2017 — For the first years I worked as a freelance WordPress developer, I overwrote or erased my fair share of client sites using the the ol’ FTP drag-and-drop. So, yea, I feel your pain.

But at some point a couple years ago I reached a boiling point and set out to find a more reliable, efficient, and consistent deployment workflow. I’ve since found something that works really well for me and in talking to my WP community, I’ve found there’s a strong interest in learning more about these practices.

The presentation will discuss my grunt.js and WP CLI deployment flow, just one part of the full package I use. In doing so it will also cover how to use the boilerplate git repository I’ve built to set it all up in just a few minutes, as well as basic git practices and alternate deployment methods such as Capistrano.

Personally, I beleive WP devs deserve access to the professional-grade workflows our peers enjoy using other languages and frameworks and I want to share what I’ve learned.

March 31, 2017 — WordPress is a favorite target of hackers who, for whatever reason, enjoy being mischievous. This talk will give you some pointers on how to protect your self-hosted WordPress site so that you make it harder for anyone to exploit weaknesses in your code and hosting setup.

March 31, 2017 — Come one, come all! Grab a cup of coffee and join Automatticians Konstantin Obenland and Michael Cain for a morning show-style WordCamp talk that’s buckets o’fun for anyone and everyone. We’ll break the session into three segments: news from around the WordPress world; a special guest interview with a WordPress “celebrity”; and a “shop talk” segment about a design or development topic that we’re hoping to learn more about by pretending to be experts in front of you, our audience.

There will be laughter (hopefully?), there will be tears (regrettably?), there will even be some awkward silences (definitely). But most importantly, there will be plenty of that whole-grained, balanced-diet WordPress that you just can’t get enough of.

March 31, 2017 — I want to tell you something and I’m going to be brutally honest. That slideshow at the top of your homepage? It sucks! Listen, I get it. It looks pretty. It fills space. Maybe you even think it’s “impressive” and “eye-catching.” But it’s being ignored by that vast majority of your visitors while slowing down your website and diluting your message. By throwing a slideshow at the top of your homepage you’re basically saying, “I want to take the most valuable real estate on my website and completely screw it up.” I want to share some alternatives with you. I want to help you structure your website in a way that engages visitors, minimizes frustration, and produces better results. And for those few and far between times in which a slider *may* be appropriate, I’ll give you some tips and recommendations on what tools and techniques to use.

Presentation Slides »

March 31, 2017 — How translation sprints helps bring in new contributors!