Bridget Willard | SaaS Marketing Agency

Tag: WordCamp

  • Ten Things I learned from 10 WordCamps

    Can you learn from WordCamps? Short answer: yes.

    Since October of 2016, when I was asked to speak at WordCamp Cincinnati I have traveled to quite a few camps. In the last 12 months, I’ve grown professionally and personally. To me, this deserved an epic recap.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BLi-uVvgSHH/?taken-by=bridgetmwillard

    WordCamps – The List: October 2016 – September 2017

    After Jason Knill and I attended WordCamp Cincinnati, Give decided to up our WordCamp game. Most of these have also been new city visits for me.

    I’ll list my role after the camp.

    1. WordCamp Cincinnati – speaker
    2. WordCamp US – Philadelphia – attendee
    3. WordCamp Atlanta – Contributor Day (Marketing Team), speaker
    4. WordCamp San Diego – volunteer, sponsor
    5. WordCamp Chicago – attendee
    6. WordCamp Orange County – organizer
    7. WordCamp Europe – Contributor Day (Marketing Team), attendee
    8. WordCamp Ottawa, speaker
    9. WordCamp Sacramento, speaker (but sick)
    10. WordCamp Los Angeles, organizer, speaker

    Yes. That’s ten WordCamps in 12 months. For the balance of 2017, I will also be going to Seattle, Rochester, and US in Nashville.

    Let’s get to what I learned.

    Lesson 1: You have friends everywhere.

    Yes. These people are your friends. Connect on social media. Meet in person. Or meet in person and connect on social media. Either way, meeting people, having great conversations, and keeping that relationship going is good for your mental health and for referring people. We all live off of referrals.

    Take selfies. Follow people on Twitter. Stay connected. People matter the most. I promise.

    https://twitter.com/jackomo/status/876102941249331200

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BTc71Urlvnd/?taken-by=bridgetmwillard

    Lesson 2: Bars have the best burgers.

    Honestly, before attending WordCamps, I never hung out at a bar. Ever. So, thanks for making me feel comfortable in a bar, WordPress. (This lesson is debated whether it’s a good thing but for the purpose of this blog post we’ll say yes.)

    If the bar has craft beer, the food is even better. If they brew their own, they may even have their own root beer!

    https://twitter.com/YouTooCanBeGuru/status/888522755246886914

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BXjcOKCFI6p/

    Lesson 3: I learned to travel on my own.

    From March when I had to fly and Uber and check into the AirBNB by myself to going on my first international fight — alone — to Paris — I learned that I can baby step my way into confidence. That was huge. And I knew, that if anything happened, I had a whole community of people who would have helped me.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BVX3qH9lxxW/

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BW0JW8nFrxK/

    Lesson 4: WordCamp shirts don’t always fit; be glad when one does.

    This lesson is about grace. It’s so easy to be annoyed. I have so many different size shirts, it’s not even funny.

    WordCamps are organized by volunteers. If you think you can make a difference, join the Community Team or volunteer for your local WordCamp.

    Lesson 5: Cherish your co-workers when you work remotely.

    I love the freedom of remote work. That said, traveling with your coworkers helps so much. There’s more to relationships than weekly hangouts and slack messages can provide. Seriously.

    I’ll never forget jamming on guitar with Ben in San Diego or checking out dinosaurs with Kevin in Philadelphia.

    I really enjoyed all of the time I got to spend with Ben and Kevin this year, in addition to the local crew: Jason, Devin, and Matt.

    People matter. Some days you realize that’s all that matters.

    Lesson 6: Slides are great; audience participation is better.

    We love slides. But engaging the audience is how they learn best. That’s all that matters. They are the reason you’ve traveled. Make the talk relevant to those people. They’ll remember it.

    Lesson 7: Sometimes the food is weird. Try it.

    This is a big one for me. I didn’t ever want to order something and not like it and then go hungry. Traveling to WordCamps has helped me realize that a) I can try something; and b) I can order something else if I need to.

    You may be pleasantly surprised, too.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BW3aPIfljih/

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BVVYI9il6y1/

    Lesson 8: Go to talks above your skill level or from a different discipline.

    We forget about the value of exposure. No, I can’t write in PHP or work with an API or even use ACF. But I understand some of the concepts now. That helps me understand my job and, more importantly, have empathy with my friends and co-workers.

    You’ll be surprised from what you do learn. I promise.

    Lesson 9: If you do get sick; be in a good hotel.

    I felt bad I had to cancel speaking at WordCamp Sacramento but was glad for a few things. Namely, Matt Cromwell was able to speak for me and I was staying in a great hotel. Room service is the best when you’re sick. And Jen Miller brought me a tea. The thing is we have a team for a reason. It worked out wonderfully.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BZHVsMEFcZ0/

    Lesson 10: The “little things” matter; even in Paris.

    My favorite part of Paris wasn’t the architecture, museums, or even the food. It was seeing a sunset over the Seine and explaining to Heather and Devin Walker why it moves me so much.

    No matter what happens in the day; it starts over. A sunset is redemptive.

    Learn things. Make friendships. Life can be hard. Remember to celebrate the little things because they truly do mean the most.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BVX2fh8lKu4/?taken-by=bridgetmwillard

    x

  • WordPress Debrief: Thoughts After Building My First Two Sites

    What’s the ROI of three WordCamps?

    Two WordPress Sites.

    (Thank you, thank you very much. I’ll be here all week.)

    You know that not all geeks are created equal, right? A social media geek isn’t necessarily an A/V geek or a hardware geek or a graphic artist geek. I think I blogged about that before.

    It’s funny now that the PTSD has subsided. Seriously. I have just survived the most difficult 20 days of my life. Here are my thoughts — a debrief of sorts, from a social media geek’s perspective.

    Why WordCamp?

    I went to WordCamp Orange County in 2013 because my friend Pam Aungst suggested it. My blogging buddy and BFF Carol Stephen bought tickets, too. Pam’s plans changed. We still went.

    Dot com versus Dot Org

    (WordPress.com v Wordpress.org)

    I’ve been blogging on WordPress.com for longer than I can remember. In 2010, I started the Riggins blog on dot com. My blog was there from 2011 until last week.

    WordPress.com is free.

    You choose a username which becomes your website address (url). Since mine was YouTooCanBeAGuru, the address (url) was youtoocanbeaguru.wordpress.com. It’s here now, so don’t go there.

    WordPress.org is also free.

    It’s an open source data base. Again, this is my lay person’s understanding. I may be corrected. Please correct me.

    “WordPress dot org is the site where you download the files of WordPress to connect to a database on your hosting account.” Russell Aaron 

    • Thanks for the correction, Russell. (He messaged me privately which was so sweet, but I wanted to be corrected.)

    Both sites have free or paid themes to choose from. Dot com does all of the updates automatically. Both options allow you to choose a mobile-responsive or mobile-friendly theme. This is even more important because of the penalty Google is implementing today.

    When you use dot org, you need to buy hosting and you have to be more active in updating your site. But the benefit is ownership. You own the domain. You own the content.

    If geeky stuff inhibits you, then just start writing. Hire someone to help you with the website part. Blogging is super important as part of a content strategy.

    Desktop Server by ServerPress

    So this year I went to WordCamp San Diego to meet in person and to hear Heather Steele of Blue Steele Solutions speak.

    WordCamp San Diego was awesome (my third WordCamp). It was really fun running into people I knew and meeting others.

    But I digress.

    After Heather spoke, but before another class I wanted to attend, was “Installing WordPress Remotely and Locally by Stephen Carnam.” I had no idea what that even meant.

    As the teacher started speaking I realized what I had fallen into. DesktopServer would let me try building a site on my computer (that is what they meant by “locally”) without paying for hosting first.

    I kept saying to Carol, this is what I’ve needed all this time.

    And so, on April 1, I downloaded it. In two days (14 hours) I had both imported the Riggins blog and copy/pasted the pages from the static site.

    It was beautiful. But I had trouble.

    1. I didn’t realize you couldn’t upload (deploy the site) from the free version. I bought the regular one.

    2. I didn’t realize you needed a live (DNS servers pointed to website address) host.

    3. Desktop Server has the best support ever. They heard my cry for help (saw my shoot me now tweets) and began emailing support.

    4. They even had an “assisted deploy” option because I bought the full version. Best $99 I ever spent in my life.

    5. April 8, my site was live. It never would have been without them.

    Seriously, DesktopServer, gave me the courage to try. I never would have even tried to build a site or convince my boss to buy hosting elsewhere unless I had been successful building our site on my computer.

    Domain Name and Hosting:

    Why is this so complicated? Here’s my lay person’s understanding.

    Domain Name:

    The domain name (bridgetwillard.com) is like a corporation name. You pay an annual nominal fee to own it. Like a corporation, you can have your office anywhere.

    Hosting:

    Hosting is like your office. This is the space you pay for on the internet where your website will be stored. You’re paying a host for their computer (server) and customer service and maintenance, etc.

    It’s good to get a referral. Hosting does matter for security and site maintenance. Well, this is what I hear. I am, by no means, a hardware or server geek. I barely blog.

    The point is that you should see what your needs are and get a recommendation from someone you trust. For this site, I took advice from Oscar Gonzalez and am using .

    The complication:

    For me, it was two-fold.

    I bought my domain name from a different provider than the hosting (in both instances). The one was more complicated because email servers were not being changed and I didn’t have the password. Blah blah get the IT guy involved, etc.

    Some hosts will move your stuff for you, I hear. Apparently, I like doing things the hard way. (What would I write about if I didn’t?)

    The hosting company who says “just forward the email from your domain name vendor to us and we’ll do the rest” will make millions of dollars. Millions.

    Themes:

    For this blog, I was lucky. The theme I was using was also available in the WordPress repository (directory).

    For Riggins, I found a theme I loved. But it was funky on my phone even though it was supposed to be responsive. After falling in love, it took about three days to find an alternate.

    I feel like I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say what a time sucking black hole it is to find a theme you like. I didn’t want our website to look like a blog. I finally settled on the one you see in the tweet below. One day, I may change it. But for now, it’s staying. I have a day job, you know.

    Not being a graphic artist and DIY-ing this whole thing was another layer of frustration.

    Sure, it’s easy to switch themes (I didn’t take this class but check out the slides). However, in a WordPress (hosted) site, you have to find the theme, then install it. After it’s installed you can do a live preview.

    However, the live preview doesn’t show everything. So you have to activate it. Every theme has different header dimensions, too, just to add to the fun. Is my sarcasm showing?

    If I had found a better theme while I was messing about in DesktopServer, I wouldn’t have gone through this frustration.

    The web designers whose prices seem high probably take this into account. I say it’s worth it.

    Plugins

    So the structure (functionality and design) of your site is controlled by the theme. But sometimes you need more functionality. Those come in the form of a plugin.

    Think of it this way:

    You bought a set of pots and pans from Costco. It comes with a few different sized pans and pots with lids, of course. But it doesn’t come with a springform pan you need to make a cheesecake or the special whisk you need to beat the eggs for your prize-winning soufflé.

    The advice I got from WordCamp is to search the WordPress repository (directory) of highly rated and highly downloaded plugins that have been updated recently. This is especially important if you don’t know what you’re doing (me). Seriously, what I got out of my first WordCamp is “your site will crash.” It’s no joke.

    I downloaded plugins for Google Analytics, XML Sitemaps, Social Sharing, Photo Galleries, and other miscellaneous functions. I check every day for updates and I run the updates.

    The Results

    I’m happy to say that rigginsconst.com was completed 4/8/15 and received the “mobile-friendly” blessing from Google on 4/10/15.

    This site is also (but was before) mobile-friendly.

    The perils of just doing stuff

    My content strategy was backwards. Sure, free is better. In the long run, though, it seems easier to start from scratch on your own domain with a blank slate.

    Instead, I merged a site I built in CSS with a blog for Riggins. This took a week to build and fix.

    For this site I just imported the blog. I say “just” but in comparison it was easy.

    The downfall with both sites was fixing all of my links back and forth within my own blog posts.

    Everything I ever did for rigginsconst.com or rigginsconst.wordpress.com before 4/8/15 was broken. The link structure with a WordPress blog is totally different. I knew I’d break it but in the long run it will be worth it.

    Of course for the Guru blog it moved from youtoocanbeaguru.wordpress.com to bridgetwillard.com. I broke all of those links, too.

    My Re-Sharing Strategy

    I knew since I broke my links, I’d have to re-share the posts that I deem most important.

    I first share them on Google Plus. They are, after all, Google. I think it helps the ranking.

    “If there’s anything close to a short-cut, it’s Google Plus.” Pam Aungst

    I’m cycling through about ten posts on each site, making sure the featured image is set, and sharing on my social platforms. Not in a spammy way, mind you, just sharing. One post a day, once a day.

    My Advice:

    If you’ve been on my path, perhaps this post lets you know that you are not alone.

    If you haven’t started yet, spend the $150 to buy your name and hosting – on the same site if possible.

    If you can hire a professional, do it. They won’t be frustrated and you can just write.

    Love,
    Bridget