Rebecca is founder and president of Web Savvy Marketing. She has as a well-rounded business background and over fifteen years of experience in sales and online marketing. Her love for WordPress website design and her strong belief in the user experience is equally matched by her fascination with search engine optimization, blogging, and marketing though social media. Rebecca provides one-on-one coaching, is a WordCamp organizer, and speaks at various WordCamps throughout the country. Connect with Rebecca at LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.

Rebecca will be presenting 10 Tips for Turning Your WordPress Website Into an Traffic Driving Machine.

Interview

Why do you use WordPress?

After discovering WordPress I started to do self training on usage. I quickly learned I could create magical things with it and I continued to dig deeper.

I love the ease of use WordPress offers, the oodles of plugins available, and the passionate community that surrounds it.

When and how did you start using WordPress?

At my former employer we launched a new website in Joomla and connected a WordPress blog to it. It was my first experience with WordPress and one I will not forget. I immediately saw a world of possibilities with WordPress and fell in head over heels in love.

What tips or resources would you recommend to a new WordPress user?

Don’t settle for what you see in the WordPress dashboard. Dig deeper, educate yourself, and explore all that is has to offer.

What advice would you give someone who’s building a business around WordPress design or development?

I built our business from the ground up on WordPress. It is larger and more successful than I ever imagined. The last five years have taught me to not limit myself or my journey.

To others I would encourage them to dream a destination and let WordPress take you there.

And when in doubt, reach out to others within our community. We will help because we know helping you succeed will help the overall community grow stronger.

How do you stay informed about WordPress (news, tips, etc.)?

I jump on Twitter, follow key brands and people on Facebook, and subscribe to a number of websites that offer updates. I scan a lot of data and pull out what is important to me or our business.

What do you like most about WordCamps?

I love the hallway conversations and after conference dinners and drinks. I’ve met good friends at WordCamps and I look forward to attending future ones because I know I will have an opportunity to be with friends I know and love, as well as meet new friends I’ve yet to discover.

Where can we find you online?

Website: web-savvy-marketing.com
Twitter: @rebeccagill
LinkedIn
Facebook
Google+

Gloria Antonelli fits the current definition of a UX Unicorn – a web designer/developer with UX chops. Gloria attended her first UX workshop “Elements of User Experience” in 2004. Now an advocate of Lean UX, Gloria infuses her skills in rapid prototyping, front end development, user testing, and ideation within the WordPress design process. Her expertise also spans CSS, IA, Content and Documentation Strategies.

Gloria started presenting about the web in 1998 at local and national conferences and workshops. She began working with WordPress in 2006 and has been delighted to share her knowledge at WordCamps in Chicago, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Milwaukee. Happiness for Gloria besides researching UX trends, Mobile and App development is scuba diving in exotic locations.

Gloria will be presenting Be a Lean UX Team Machine.

Interview

Why do you use WordPress?

Years ago when I was teaching web development to Chicago creative professionals, I found myself saying “you can do this with WordPress faster by downloading a theme or adding a plugin.” WordPress was easier that building from scratch. It has really grown and continues to create better web solutions.

When and how did you start using WordPress?

I first learned about WordPress during Peter Merholz’s (credited with coining the word “blog”) 2-day “Designing the Complete User Experience” workshop in 2006. I was building web sites since 1998, but started adding WordPress blogs to client sites in 2007. I also added WordPress to my training curriculum that same year. Ah, those were the “pre-child theme” days of hacking away at themes and hard-coding navigation.

What tips or resources would you recommend to a new WordPress user?

A new WordPress user today has so many learning options compared to when I was first started. My most important tip is to keep yourself open to continuous learning from many sources and to look into complimentary web design skills. Don’t have tunnel vision. User experience is also so important!

What advice would you give someone who’s building a business around WordPress design or development?

Build a collaborative team, learn from the start-up community and most importantly build something that people actually want.

What do you like most about WordCamps?

As I have spoken at a number of WordCamps since 2011, first I would say I like sharing my knowledge about web development in the context of the WordPress environment. Second, I love learning from other WordCamp presenters. There is always more to learn!

Where can we find you online?

Twitter: @GloriaAntonelli

Peter DeHaan produces magazines, newsletters, and informational websites. A published author and prolific blogger, owner of a dozen WordPress sites and author of 1,500 posts, Peter will share how to write effective website copy and produce posts that engage readers. Learn more at peterdehaanpublishing.com and authorpeterdehaan.com.

Peter will be presenting 12 Tips For Better WordPress Content Creation.

Interview

Why do you use WordPress?

I needed to find a replacement for the aging and obsolete FrontPage. WordPress was the ideal solution. I wish I had switched sooner!

When and how did you start using WordPress?

I moved eight blogs over to WordPress in 2011 and started moving my websites over in 2012. Migrating websites, especially large ones, can be time-consuming. I have fourteen moved and six waiting to be moved.

What tips or resources would you recommend to a new WordPress user?

Many people I talk with seek a totally free solution and go with WordPress.com. What they later end up doing is spending money anyway (to suppress ads, buy a domain name, etc), so I recommend they start with WordPress.org from the beginning. If offers greater flexibility and more options, while still being cost-effective.

What advice would you give someone who’s building a business around WordPress design or development?

Don’t do what everyone else is doing or offer what you think will make you the most money. Look at what you are good at and enjoy doing; then build your business around that.

How do you stay informed about WordPress (news, tips, etc.)?

I’m a big fan of Dustin Hartzler (who I met last year at Word Camp Grand Rapids). His weekly podcasts are invaluable, providing most of the information I need. Plus he has many other resources online: yourwebsiteengineer.com.

I’m also part of a WordPress Meetup group, which aided me greatly when I was just starting out.

What’s a cool WordPress-based site you’ve seen recently?

I’m going to plug my friend’s site: ambscallcenter.com. Aaron Boatin first encouraged me to check out WordPress, and when he told me his site used WordPress, I was amazed!

What do you like most about WordCamps?

Meeting other WordPress enthusiasts; I learn from most of them and look to help out others wherever I can.

I look to meet more people this year!

Where can we find you online?

My business is at peterdehaanpublishing.com and one of my blogs, authorpeterdehaan.com. They are good places to start; they will point people to my other sites and social media pages.

Jim Luke isn’t a developer, but he is a WordPress addict. He’s been teaching economics at Lansing Community College for the last 13 years, including a lot of online teaching. His enthusiasm for innovation in college teaching and WordPress has led him to found a non-profit organization, Malartu Inc, to help all college faculty create their own WordPress sites and gain their online voice.

Before getting into teaching, he spent 25 years in corporate strategic planning consulting with a specialty in emerging technologies.

Jim will be presenting How WP Can Save Academic Freedom and Cure the Crises in Higher Education.

Interview

Why do you use WordPress?

I teach at a college. I use WP as public blog on economics news, as a teaching portfolio, and as a platform for teaching my online courses. I’ve also gotten involved in helping other faculty in higher ed use WP to improve teaching and productivity.

When and how did you start using WordPress?

Dec. 2008.

What tips or resources would you recommend to a new WordPress user?

Trust wordpress.org and the Codex. Use it.

What advice would you give someone who’s building a business around WordPress design or development?

Get involved with Meetups and WordCamps. There’s lots to be learned that will accelerate things. Reuse first, don’t try to always code and reinvent the wheel. Odds are there’s somebody that’s already solved your problem … and done it better.

How do you stay informed about WordPress (news, tips, etc.)?

Follow blogs: WordPress Tavern, The WHiP by WPMU, WordPress development blog.

Also find key developers to follow on Twitter such as Nacin.

What’s a cool WordPress-based site you’ve seen recently?

A bunch of different P2-theme based sites.

What do you like most about WordCamps?

How approachable everybody is and how enthusiastic they are. Everybody is willing to help.

Where can we find you online?

Twitter: @econproph
jimluke.com – teaching portfolio
econproph.com – economics blog
econproph.net – my online econ courses
malartu.org – the non-profit I’ve started to promote WP sites among higher ed faculty.

Cameron Barrett (@camworld) has been blogging since you were in grade school (well, some of you). He pioneered the blog format in the late 1990s and remembers an eager, bright-eyed young man named Ma.tt being excited to meet one of the “founding fathers of blogging” in 2003. He’s since designed and built web sites for presidential candidates, the U.S. Army, the World Economic Forum, Teach for America and is now leading the migration of 70+ web sites from a terrifically-bad, proprietary SaaS to WordPress for New Jersey’s largest public school district. He hails from Northern Michigan and currently lives in Northern NJ with his family.

Cameron will be presenting WordPress in Schools – How We Saved Taxpayer Dollars And You Can Too.

Interview

Why do you use WordPress?

It’s ease-of-use and user interface for content management is hands-down the best on the market. The fact that it’s free is something my clients have a hard time understanding.

When and how did you start using WordPress?

As a very early blogger (circa 1997) I was hand-rolling my own CMS by storing blog entries in flat HTML files that I would stitch together with Apache server-side includes. Then MovableType came out and I migrated to that. I stopped blogging in 2005 but started investigating WordPress as a CMS solution for my various web design and small e-commerce clients. That was 2004 or so and I’ve been doing a lot of work in WordPress and Drupal ever since.

What tips or resources would you recommend to a new WordPress user?

Read the Codex. Learn what the hooks are. Even if you’re not developing for WordPress, knowing the available hooks can save you a lot of time and money when talking with developers.

What advice would you give someone who’s building a business around WordPress design or development?

Vet your plugins. If a plugin has only been downloaded a few hundred times and has no ratings, there’s usually a reason why. If you can afford it, have a professional plugin developer vet the quality of your plugins for you. Those relationships will help in the future when you need to have a custom plugin developed for you.

How do you stay informed about WordPress (news, tips, etc.)?

The wordpress.com newsletters. I wish I had more time to hang out in IRC and participate in the forums.

What do you like most about WordCamps?

Friendly format. You can hang out in the halls and learn more than in the sessions.

Where can we find you online?

cameronbarrett.com
chalkpress.co
Twitter: @camworld
linkedin.com/in/camworld/
about.me/cam

Joel Worsham will be presenting Register, Enqueue, Confusion! The proper way to include files in WordPress.

Interview

Why do you use WordPress?

Because it rocks my socks off. It’s so incredibly easy to use and to customize. From the simple user to the developer, it has everything. And it is ALWAYS growing and improving. Plus the community for WordPress is so great and expansive.

When and how did you start using WordPress?

Actually, quite recently. I started using WordPress about a year ago and hated it.

“What? It keeps removing all of my nice HTML code I pasted in the editor!”

Well… once I learned how to truly use WordPress, I fell in love with it and have been using it as my sole CMS from then on.

What tips or resources would you recommend to a new WordPress user?

User? Be sure to learn the ins and outs of what you can do within the admin interface, it’s powerful.

Developer? Learn the ins and outs of how freaking customizable and flexible it is. It will change your life… Or maybe just your development process.

What advice would you give someone who’s building a business around WordPress design or development?

Go for it and don’t look back. This CMS will do what you want. End of story.

How do you stay informed about WordPress (news, tips, etc.)?

I don’t stay as informed as I’d like to be. I’ve been trying to get more in the loop, but for now I attend WP meetups frequently as well as as many WordCamps as possible.

What’s a cool WordPress-based site you’ve seen recently?

Hmm, man that’s a toughie. It’s like picking my favorite song or movie.

I’ll toot my own horn here. I really like crossfit517.com. A site a put together for the gym I go to.

What do you like most about WordCamps?

The community. It’s incredible.

Where can we find you online?

Well, my site is in the making and will HOPEFULLY be complete by WordCamp. It’s joelworsham.com.

Ian started off his career by swearing off web design entirely. This lasted through most of college, at which point he realized that print design is not a super viable career path any more and succumbed once more to the toxic allure of the World Wide Web™.

Since then his voracious appetite for learning has led him through design, development, writing for a fashion blog, and culminated in running his own design and dev agency – build/create.

WordPress just so happens to combine all of that goodness into a beautiful, user-friendly package, and thus, here we are.

Ian Wilson will be presenting Introduction to WordPress Hooks and Learn From My Mistakes: 8 Years in the Game.

Interview

Why do you use WordPress?

Because it’s easy for our clients to use, and easy to develop for, AND has an amazing community! It’s just that simple.

When and how did you start using WordPress?

I started in 2006 – I was working in-house at a printing company and it was in Fantastico!

After some dabbling in other content management systems in PHP and Rails throughout the years it became clear that WordPress was the only solution that didn’t make me feel like I was losing my mind on a daily basis.

What tips or resources would you recommend to a new WordPress user?

The Codex. (Nearly) All truth lies within.

The WordPress community is big, vibrant, and awesome. Lean on it, leverage it, I don’t know a single person I’ve met that isn’t happy to help a newb find their path.

What advice would you give someone who’s building a business around WordPress design or development?

Start now, don’t wait. And equally important, keep track of the tactics you’re going to use to grow, and any changes you make to them so you can look back and see what you did that worked and what didn’t so you don’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

How do you stay informed about WordPress (news, tips, etc.)?

Twitter mostly, also WordCamps.

What’s a cool WordPress-based site you’ve seen recently?

I’ve been having a mad crush on Easy Digital Downloads lately. Technically it’s a plugin, not a site, but what you can do with it does build awesome sites 🙂

What do you like most about WordCamps?

It’s the best, seriously. You can make the most out of every second by talking to people, asking tons of questions, and of course attending the sessions that best address your weaknesses.

Once you do one, you won’t be able to stop. It becomes an addiction.

Where can we find you online?

Twitter: @buildcreate
Personal Twitter: @wilsonography
buildcreate.com

Don’t be a stranger!