WordCamp San Diego 2012 – All The Knowledge!!

WordCamp San Diego 2012WordCamp San Diego took place this past weekend, and as usual it was a day of learning, community and fun! Tickets to this event sold out extremely quickly so many folks missed out. Below you will find links to all of the slides from the presenters so if you missed the event you can still glean some of the knowledge that was presented. There were 2 tracks – a more basic, less code-y one for End-Users, and a Developer track for hardcore coders. Find a WordCamp event near you

END USER TRACK:

Start-Ups and WordPress
Chris Lema
WordPress can be used for more than just your Blog or your Web Site. It can just as easily power a variety of other parts of your business model – including validating your product concepts, supporting existing customers, capturing feedback, and more. Here’s the scoop on how to use WordPress for landing pages, project hubs, support systems, video membership sites, and surveys.
Get the slides

Read More

Treat Your Blog Like A Business – Slides From San Diego WordCamp

Treat Your Blog LIke A Business - Monetization Strategies

Below are the slides from my San Diego WordCamp talk on “Treat Your Blog Like A Business”. I discussed a few common monetization strategies, and the ins n’s outs of each. My overall premise is that in most cases, monetization doesn’t just happen to you, you have to be prepared and have a strategy that will help you take advantage of opportunities that may arise. The more value you build with your blog, even before thinking of monetization, the better prepared you will be. Don’t wait until you actually want to make money before building an email list or developing your social networking efforts.

Read More

WordCamp San Diego Wrap-Up – Community Rocks!

wordcamp san diego

This past weekend I had the pleasure of speaking at the first ever WordCamp in San Diego. It was an amazing experience for many reasons. I delivered a presentation entitled “Treat Your Blog Like A Business: Which Monetization Strategy Is Right For You?” (I’ll get around to posting up the slides soon….) and received some encouraging feedback on it throughout the day. Being a total intovert , any kind of public speaking is a bit nerve-wracking but I like to challenge myself. A couple of years ago I spoke at Orange County WordCamp and in comparison I felt much better prepared and more comfortable with it this time. Thanks to all that watched and spoke with me afterwards!

As I have experienced with other WordCamps, WordPress has the best community I think I’ve ever been a part of. I didn’t know anyone when I went to San Diego this weekend, but by the end of the day I had connected with several incredible people and felt right at home. This is another huge reason why WordPress is so powerful. I’m not sure that any other technologies or industries have this kind of community aspect. If you have any interest in WordPress I highly recommend attending WordCamps – you’ll meet knowledgeable and friendly people who all want to help you and spread the WordPress love! You’ll also learn tons from the talks and get an even larger picture of the scope of WordPress and the many diverse ways in which it can be used.

Read More

Speaking at OC Wordcamp – WordPress for Marketing

I’ve been given the opportunity to speak this weekend at OC Wordcamp (thanks Brandon!) on the topic: WordPress for Marketing. I will be discussing ways to optimize your blog to market yourself, your business or service. I’ll  be covering things like:

  • Some plugins you can use to help make your site ‘sticky’
  • How to discover what people really want from your site
  • How to collect information from your visitors and develop your mailing list
  • Making sure your site effectively communicates your desired message
  • Find out what’s working and what could be more effective on your site
Read More

Notes from Wordcamp Los Angeles

I attended my first WordCamp this weekend and had a great time listening to some info-filled presentations and mingling with my fellow nerds. :)
Here’s some nuggets I gleaned from the day….enjoy.

WordPress will soon run the world. Their other products include:

bbPress – lightweight, WP-style forum
BuddyPress – social network in a box
BackPress – shared code library for WordPress and bbPress

WordPress MU – allows for multi-blog management i.e. you can allow users of your site set up their own WP blogs on your site. A common misconception is that MU is designed for those who have several of their own blogs they’d like to manage from one dashboard – not true! If this is your situation you need a plugin like WP-Hive to make your life easier. WP MU currently uses a lot of server resources so it’s probably not great for shared hosting accounts.

Read More