WP Builds

Welcome to another in the Business Bootcamp series where we relearn everything we know about building WordPress sites, and running a web design business from start to finish. We are taking contrasting approaches to getting our new businesses running and our first client’s site built. Today we're talking about what you, or don't do when handing over the site in terms of training. Do you prepare reams and reams of documents which carefully outline the ways to achieve all-the-things, and hand it to them in a big binder? Do you make videos for the client so that they can see what they need to do? Perhaps you react after the fact and wait until the client comes to you with specific queries, which you answer one at a time? Or maybe, just maybe, you don't do much at all and hope that the client figures it all out for themselves and leaves you alone to get on with the next website? Whatever it is, we'd love for you to listen to the podcast and then leave us a comment about how your process differs or aligns with ours.

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 15th August 2022.

On the podcast today we have WPCodeBox plugin developer Ovidiu Maghetiu, and he's here to explain how it works and what it can do, and it can do... a lot! WPCodeBox is turning out to be one of those plugins that you know that you're going to use for years to come. What I really like about this plugin is that it's a conduit for your imagination. Many plugins offer you a pathway for achieving a particular task. You use it to achieve one or two things. WPCodeBox is designed to be an empty container which you fill up with your (or other peoples) ideas. It's all about snippets at its heart. You can add snippets for PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, SaaS to your website and in many cases reduce the plugin footprint as a result. Check out the podcast to find out more...

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 8th August 2022.

So the moment has arrived. You've busted a jut and got the website finished. It's 100% ready to roll. Now what? Well, you've got to launch it and let the world see the great work that you've done! So what's involved in that? What do you typically need to do to make that happen? This is the subject that we explore on the podcast today and it's one where David and Nathan have different approaches. David is going agile and is likely to ship it as soon as the first page is ready, whereas Nathan is waiting until the entire site is completed. What steps do you need to follow on our launch checklist, and what things can go wrong?

On the podcast today we have Raitis Sevelis from Visual Composer, and he's here today to talk about the how you should use your WordPress page builder with pride and explain to your clients the many benefits that it brings to your workflow. There was a time when page builders first came around that they were somewhat spurned in the community. Not by all, and not for long. They were doing things in a new way, and sometimes new hurts. Gone were many of the technical barriers to creating sites. No more need to be wrangling template files and inserting shortcodes here there and everywhere. Page builders allowed a whole new audience to come to WordPress and build site for themselves as well as for their clients. Raitis thinks that sometimes we hide our page builder skills a little; assume that clients will think that less of us for using them. He has the opinion that we ought to be talking about how we use them more with our clients, and explaining how their use us making websites faster, cheaper and more easy for non-technical users to maintain and amend.

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 25th July 2022.

Welcome to another in the Business Bootcamp series where we relearn everything we know about building WordPress sites and running a web design business from start to finish. And today we are discussing 'Legal stuff'. So this is about what we know (which is coming from our perspective, not that of a lawyer) about what responsibilities we have as the builders of WordPress websites for clients. Some of the decisions made when building a site potentially have legal consequences. GDPR, accessibility and those connected to rights and copyright. Lots of advice can be found in the WordPress Community, but like elsewhere, much could be profit motivated. So, having a sensible conversation about expectations and responsibilities seems the obvious thing to do?

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 18th July 2022.

So on the podcast today we have Amber Hinds and she's here to use her expertise to explain how and why WordPress websites need to be accessible. It's a really important topic at the moment. There seems to be a groundswell of understanding that the web really does need to be made available to all, and that means thinking about all the people who might be visiting your site. So that's people who are using screen readers, people consuming videos who are hard of hearing, and so much more. We talk about what accessibility is and what comes under its purview. Is it something that you need to do under law or is it something that you can leave until later? There's a lot more to this than meets to eye, and it's well worth a listen if you're new to all this, or if you've already started your accessibility journey.