November 18, 2019 — A story of learning and failing and learning more and succeeding with building websites, delving into the world of Pay Per Click advertising, and all the analytics that go with it.
The first time a website went down and how I handled it.
My first online shop and learning how to build it.
The world of free vs paid themes and my experiences with it (hint: I am leaning towards free).
The importance of persistent and consistent action and monitoring in Google Ads campaigns in order to improve their performance.
Highlighting the fact that I’m not a “web developer” (not even a WordPress developer), but I am still able to teach myself how to fully craft a functional website, and get better and better at it as a “WordPress website creator”. I like to think of myself as a technology consultant. Jack of all trades, Master of some. I also still like my day job and the Microsoft products I work with there, hence not going full time into the side hustle. In fact, I am a proponent of having a full-time gig that funds the majority of my needs, and having side hustles and personal passion projects, as many as I please, purely for the fun of it.
Lastly, a short checklist of things I do when I first create any WordPress website, including some particular settings I prefer, as well as the few plugins that I install on every single site (Wordfence, YoastSEO).

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November 11, 2017 — In this interactive session, Gilles will share the secrets of starting, managing and maintaining a successful website design/development business. Whether you’re thinking of starting a business or you’re currently managing one, you’re likely to learn valuable tips. Although the session is web business-centric, the lessons can be applied to many types of businesses.

In this dynamic session, audience participation amplifies the learning possibilities. Come learn the secrets and have fun!

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July 20, 2017 — Just getting started with WordPress and need to build a site? I’ll cover exactly how to do it! I’ll go over the basic elements you need to create a site (including domain & hosting) and also covering items to look for when selecting a theme. We’ll also cover the mistakes that some businesses make that prevent them from launching their site and how to avoid them.

May 16, 2017 — Advanced Custom Fields is a powerful plugin that enables the addition of custom fields to your pages, posts and more. Yet, it’s so wonderfully simple that anyone with a basic understanding of WordPress themes can learn to integrate its functionality into their own WordPress builds. Come learn what it can do and how to get started using it.

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May 15, 2017 — Over 150 people came together one October to build 48 custom WordPress websites for 48 non-profits in 48 hours. Learn how we built the custom fundraising system that empowered these organizations to accept online donations and mobilize their communities to start their own fundraising campaigns just like charity: water — in less than two hours with zero custom code. And take away some tips for how you, too, can quickly and efficiently build custom business applications at a fraction of the cost using WordPress.

May 13, 2017 — WordPress is made for the DIY person who wants to create a website site fast! And when you launch a new site, you want to have all the tools and resources the professionals use to work efficiently. In this session Christina Hills will show you some essential tools and plugins to get yourself organized for success so you can get your website built quickly and easily.

February 3, 2017 — Having built hundreds of websites for clients over the past 8 years I see some things that work exceptionally well every time and other things that are invariably almost always failures.

Putting a website together is a science but not rocket science, and I will show you how we do it with our clients.

Simple things like…

* How big to make the logo and were to place it
* Why you should never use stock images
* Why the worst place to start is to replicate competitors websites
* How to automate your marketing

to…

* The most effective call to action
* The highest converting instruction on a contact form
* Optimal layout of the header, sidebar, footer, body
* Quick hacks to getting high converting copy

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March 26, 2016 — Building websites with WordPress is fun, challenging, exciting. Building solutions that fundamentally alter a person’s behavior or the way of business for an entire network of museums? That’s nothing short of incredible.

Come and learn how WordPress helped transform an art museum, a library, and a national fitness center by awarding digital badges for real-world participation.

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