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We have a great panel of WordPress educational experts and developers this Saturday, Morten Rand-Hendriksen from Lynda.com, Kim Shivler, from Whiteglovewebtraining, Jackie D’Elia from  Jackie D’Elia Design and our co-host John Locke from Lockedown Design. What are the various resources that we have used before? What are the websites, books, seminars, conferences, and courses that we recommend? Show Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 3:03 WordPress story #1: The Future of eLearning by Chris Lema. http://chrislema.com/future-of-elearning/ 29:44 WordPress story #2: Apply for the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship from the WordCamp US 2016 blog. https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/2016/10/03/apply-for-the-kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship/ 40:16 Main Topic: Resources for Continuing Your Web Education 40:52 What resources would you recommend to someone who is a total beginner at web design and development? 44:50 Learning the web in the early days vs. learning web design and development today. 48:46 Some great resources for learning web design and web development 57:24 Know what your end goal is, and know what the job market for web design and development looks like. 1:01:44 John recommends some books and sites for learning web design and development 1:03:17 How long does it take to start making a living from web design and development? 1:04:48 Jonathan recommends some books and courses for WordPress development 1:08:32 Why Jackie uses Genesis for WordPress development and some recommended resources for learning WordPress development. 1:12:16 Jackie lists some resources for learning PHP and JavaScript 1:15:02 Kim recommends some resources for learning databases and MySQL. 1:17:34 Podcast outros.   =========== Links and websites mentioned during the show:   Wes Bos http://wesbos.com/courses/ Zac Gordon: JavaScript for WP https://javascriptforwp.com/ https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/104-zac-gordon-wordpress-educator/ Treehouse https://teamtreehouse.com/ The App Design Handbook and Designing Web Applications by Nathan Berry http://nathanbarry.com/books/ Vi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi Code School https://www.codeschool.com/ Codecademy https://www.codecademy.com/ Judi Knight https://twitter.com/judiknight https://newtricks.com/ LinkedIn Learning https://www.linkedin.com/learning/ Lynda https://www.lynda.com/ dBase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBase Guil Hernandez on Twitter https://twitter.com/guilh Know The Code https://knowthecode.io/ Know The Business https://knowthebusiness.io/ Multiple Intelligences http://www.institute4learning.com/multiple_intelligences.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences Multiple Inteligences and Learning Styles http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Multiple_Intelligences_and_Learning_Styles Director for Macromedia (Adobe Director) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Director Designing With Web Standards https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-Standards-Jeffrey-Zeldman/dp/0321616952 A Book Apart https://abookapart.com/ An Event Apart on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/channels/aneventapart Andy Clarke https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/ https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/books https://24ways.org/authors/andyclarke/ https://speakerdeck.com/malarkey https://vimeo.com/88392292 A List Apart http://alistapart.com/ Jeremy Keith https://adactio.com/ http://clearleft.com/is/jeremy-keith CSS-Tricks / Chris Coyier https://css-tricks.com/ Shop Talk Show http://shoptalkshow.com/ Ethan Marcotte http://ethanmarcotte.com/ http://unstoppablerobotninja.com/ Jeffrey Zeldman http://www.zeldman.com/ Digging Into WordPress https://digwp.com/ The Lodge | CSS Tricks https://css-tricks.com/lodge/ Professional WordPress Plugin Development https://www.amazon.com/Professional-WordPress-Plugin-Development-Williams/dp/0470916222 Pippins Plugins - Learn Plugin Development https://pippinsplugins.com/learn/ StudioPress Blog http://www.studiopress.com/blog/ Sridhar Katakam - Genesis and WordPress Tutorials https://sridharkatakam.com/ Carrie Dils, Lynda.com course author (Genesis, WordPress) https://www.lynda.com/Carrie-Dils/965233-1.html Morten Rand-Hendriksen, Lynda.com course author (WordPress, web development) https://www.lynda.com/Morten-Rand-Hendriksen/725535-1.html Tom McFarlin: A Perspective on Professional WordPress Development https://tommcfarlin.com/ Rebecca Gill / Web Savvy Marketing https://www.web-savvy-marketing.com/seo-consulting/ David Powers, Lynda.com coure author (PHP) https://www.lynda.com/David-Powers/310454-1.html Foundation PHP https://foundationphp.com/ Stanford University Free SQL Mini-Course https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/DB/SQL/SelfPaced/about Khan Academy Intro to SQL course https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/sql SQLCourse.com (older site, but still informative) http://www.sqlcourse.com/   ===========   Find bonus content from this episode on the WP-Tonic website: https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/132-web-education-resources/   ===========   WP-Tonic is not just a WordPress maintenance service, but publishers of a twice weekly WordPress business podcast where we talk with some of the most successful people in WordPress development and online marketing.  

We have a great interview with WordPress developer, business coach, and podcaster Curtis McHale from Vancouver, BC, CA. Curtis has been involved in the WordPress community for a number of years and has contributed a lot to helping WordPress freelance developer get more quality clients. You can find Curtis at http://curtismchale.ca/ and at https://twitter.com/curtismchale. Show Table of Contents 0:00 Intros. 1:28 How important is for you to know why you are in business? 3:00 Stop running a hobby, and start running a business. 4:18 What are some obstacles preventing people from running a successful web development business? 6:38 Why you shouldn't answer your email all day long. 9:08 What holds people back from charging the rates they should be? 10:57 What are your thought on paid discovery and Socratic questioning? 12:53 How can you improve communication with your web development clients? 14:57 What are your thoughts on hourly billing and value pricing? 17:39 Why you should still have an effective hourly rate when you do value pricing. 19:45 How has your lead generation system changed over time? 22:22 Why are more people not doing the marketing that they should be? 25:29 What are actionable steps you can take to improve web development lead generation in a three to six month period? 28:31 If you're a web developer, how do you jump from the 1k to 3k clients to the  6k to 15k clients? 31:50 What are the biggest misconceptions people have about writing a winning proposal? 37:57 Curtis has a special giveaway for our listeners. 40:15 Podcast outros and how you can get a hold of everyone.   We sit down with noted WordPress consultant and business coach Curtis McHale to talk about getting better clients, writing better proposals, effective client communication, pricing your services, marketing, and more. Get more bonus content at the WP-Tonic website: https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/131-curtis-mchale-wordpress-consultant   ===========   Sites mentioned during the show:   Smart Business Show (iTunes) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-business-show-curtis/id965262802?mt=2   Redbooth https://redbooth.com/   Diane Kinney on real-world freelancing https://poststatus.com/art-self-employed-web-consultant-draft-podcast/   Toggl https://toggl.com/   Easy Digital Downloads https://easydigitaldownloads.com/   Brennan Dunn https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/   Chris Lema https://chirslema/   The 10,000 Hour Rule http://gladwell.com/outliers/the-10000-hour-rule/   Effective Client Email https://curtismchale.ca/effective-client-email/   Writing Proposals That Win Work https://curtismchale.ca/write-proposals-win-work/   =========== Follow us on iTunes and leave us a review! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wp-tonic-wordpress-insights/id893083124?mt=2     ===========   WP-Tonic is a twice weekly WordPress business podcast where we talk with some of the most successful people in WordPress development and online marketing.  

We'll look at what inbound marketing and content marketing are, and some examples of businesses using inbound and content marketing. We'll examine our own track records with content marketing, and look at if it has worked for our own clients or not. If you do any form of online marketing or lead generation, this will be a discussion you don't want to miss. Our panel for this show: Adam Fout of Blue Steele Solutions Bridget Willard of WordImpress! Sallie Goetch of WP Fangirl Jonathan Denwood of WP-Tonic John Locke of Lockedown Design   Show Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 2:50 This week in WordPress stories 2:54 Pippin Williamson of Pippin's Plugins did a huge rundown of different page builders. What were your thoughts? 20:17 There is a theme on ThemeForest selling for $225. Will this be the first of many? Will this have any long-term effects on the theme market? 30:10 The main topic is "Does Content Marketing Really Work?" 31:30 What is content marketing? 33:05 How do you come up with content marketing ideas? 36:51 What happens when you have more ideas than time to publish content? 38:04 Keyword research can be a good way to drive your future content. 39:10 How do you create valuable content that stands out from the sheer volume of information being published? 42:49 Everyone is jumping on the content marketing bandwagon because their ads aren't working anymore. 44:05 How do you publish high-quality content on an aggressive schedule? 44:54 Companies who publish more often get more leads. 45:49 Id there a noticeable difference between companies that embrace content marketing and those who do not? 48:35 Content is king, but the end goal is to build a community or authority. 49:23 What difference does a consistent schedule make in content marketing? 50:43 Content marketing is a long-term game. 51:49 Do well-written case studies make people more likely to do business with you? 55:26 Voice is very important in creating content and resonating with customers. 59:09 Time for the podcast outros.     Get additional bonus content on the WP-Tonic website: https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/130-does-content-marketing-really-work   ===========   Other links mentioned during the show:   The Skyscraper technique http://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique   HubSpot study on effect of publishing more content on website traffic http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blogging-frequency-benchmarks#sm.0001dcwomtvtyflc117m4a86dytzw   Shane Melaugh http://imimpact.com/   Brian Lee Jackson https://woorkup.com/   Robbie Richards http://www.robbierichards.com/   Give WP https://givewp.com/   Can WordPress Scale its Community Without Mentorship? https://wordimpress.com/can-wordpress-scale-community-without-mentorship/   Jen Miller at Need Someone To Blog https://needsomeonetoblog.com/   Robert Nissenbaum at Tactical Social Media http://tacticalsocialmedia.org/   ===========   WP-Tonic is not just a WordPress maintenance service, but publishers of a twice weekly WordPress business podcast where we talk with some of the most successful people in WordPress development and online marketing.   =========== Follow us on iTunes and leave us a review! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wp-tonic-wordpress-insights/id893083124?mt=2    

We sit down with Chris Handy, CEO and Founder of Thinkhandy to discuss sales funnels, inbound marketing, email marketing, and nurturing leads. http://www.thinkhandy.com/ Show Table of Contents 0:00 Intros 0:37 What is inbound marketing? How does inbound marketing relate to the sales cycle? 1:40 Inbound marketing has expanded it's meaning to the point of dilution 2:09 People buy differently than they used to 3:00 Content creation has become more casual 3:31 Answering your customers questions online 4:50 Wanting to get questions answered without talking to a sales person 5:58 50% of sales in  B2B are made before you ever speak to the prospect 7:55 Easing into the sales funnel with email marketing 8:34 Every email marketing campaign is going to look different, depending on the business and audience 9:57 People get stuck on The Law of Demand 11:09 Don't be afraid to share unique content in email newsletters 12:20 Be more of a teacher 14:08 Curating and publishing content on a specific subject in your newsletter 16:28 Building a content machine from customer and client feedback 19:08 HItting customer objections head-on 21:00 Using human language and not jargon 22:45 Why do salespeople rush to close the deal 26:26 Matching customers to what they need 29:40 Your job is to take them to the next step of the funnel 31:30 You have to have quotas in sales teams, but realize they influence behavior 33:48 LeadPages buying Drip, and thoughts on automation 38:40 Tracking source of sales referrals is important 39:39 Comparing some of the email marketing solutions 41:02 How sales teams use a CRM to get a 360 degree view of a customer 42:05 Workflows and automated sequences in email marketing 43:13 Podcast outros You can read more content from this episode on the WP-Tonic website:  https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/129-chris-handy-thinkhandy/   ================== Subscribe to WP-Tonic in iTunes and leave us a rating: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wp-tonic-wordpress-business/id893083124?mt=2   ==================   WP-Tonic is not only a WordPress support and maintenance service, but also publishers of a twice weekly WordPress business podcast where we talk with some of the most successful people in WordPress development and online marketing.  

In this round-table show, we go deep into SEO and what works in 2016 and what can damage your website's Google ranking. We look at black hat SEO techniques you should avoid, and outdated SEO myths that do more harm than good.   This week, we're talking black hat SEO, and the outdated SEO techniques you  might be using that will do more harm than good for your Google rankings. Our panel this week: Jackie D'Elia https://jackiedelia.com/ Jonathan Denwood https://www.wp-tonic.com Sallie Goetch https://www.wpfangirl.com/ John Locke https://www.lockedowndesign.com/ We have some weekly WordPress news stories that we hit in the first half hour: 1 - ButterBean Post Meta Box Framework 1.0 Released https://wptavern.com/butterbean-post-meta-box-framework-1-0-released 2 - WordPress for Enterprise: Why Your Enterprise Business Should Use WordPress https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-enterprise/ 3 - Why customers want WordPress Page Builders http://chrislema.com/want-wordpress-page-builders/ Show Table of Contents: 0:00 Intros 2:02 Weekly WordPress stories 2:05 Jason Tadlock releases ButterBean Post Meta Box Framework 1.0 6:40 Using WordPress for your enterprise business 17:20 Why do customers want page builders? 37:14 What are the crazy outdated SEO myths that people still believe? 38:10 Duplicate content / plagiarized content 38:40 Buying links / link schemes 39:30 Spam comments 40:00 Article spinning 40:15 Keyword stuffing / location + service keyword stuffing 42:25 Buying backlinks 44:20 Blog networks 44:46 Confessions of a Google Spammer https://inbound.org/blog/confessions-of-a-google-spammer 45:17 A link from a very reputable source can help your rankings 46:20 The meta keywords tag hasn't been relevant in years 46:56 Over-optimizing a site with very little content will look like spam 47:37 Duplicate meta descriptions 48:10 People don't want to hear that SEO takes time 48:40 Sallie's awesome tagline "SEO Is not a condiment" 48:50 Rebecca Gill's SEO Course https://www.web-savvy-marketing.com/2016/02/learn-seo/ 49:40 Internal linking also matters 51:12 How do you know who to trust when hiring a SEO expert? 52:00 Jackie has a great real-world story about how user experience makes a huge difference in SEO 55:15 You are optimizing your site for users, not Google 57:13 Google won't make money if they don't give people accurate results 58:40 Performance and mobile-friendliness are important for SEO 1:00:30 Some enterprise websites are still not mobile-friendly 1:01:25 We STILL don't design websites for mobile-first 1:03:05 Wix is still the dirt worst for SEO and user experience 1:05:23 Podcast outros Subscribe to us on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wp-tonic-wordpress-podcast/id893083124?mt=2   ===========   Read more content on the WP-Tonic website: https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/128-black-hat-seo-outdated-seo/   ===========   WP-Tonic is not just a WordPress maintenance service, but publishers of a twice weekly WordPress business podcast where we talk with some of the most successful people in WordPress development and online marketing.      

We discuss with James White CEO of IntouchCRM what its really like to run a successful SaaS company in 2016. James and team have spent the last 8 + years building one of the most popular CRMs in the UK for small businesses.   In this episode, James has a lot of insights on how to differentiate yourself from the competition, what it takes to makes sales, and the importance of email marketing.   Show Table of Contents   0:00 Intros 1:52 Why did James start a Software as a Service company in the first place? 4:20 What is the general advice James would give people starting a company or wanting to be an entrepreneur? 6:28 Dont concentrate on the technology - find your customer and focus on your marketing. 7:24 Planning is the most important step in launching a business 8:39 How the InTouch Growth Academy is helping businesses actually succeed with their CRM 9:43 "Software (by) itself doesn't do anything." 10:20 Customers need help getting started with your product 11:40 The value of a hybrid Saas and training service 12:57 The importance of listening to people who have succeeded in the same path that you are trying to walk down 14:45 Knowing who you can't help is important for your business 15:18 If you are planning the problem you want to solve, and who you want to solve it for, most of your pain as a business owner will disappear 16:57 What are the most common mistakes that the user base makes when marketing their business? 17:30 Unless you drive traffic to your site, there's no point in having a website 18:15 You have to keep following up to close a sale. Most sales take place on the fifth to twelfth interaction. 19:41 Where did James get the idea for the Growth Academy? and what sort of difference has it made in onboarding, sales, and customer success? 22:49 How does automation make following up easier? And how does this affect your overall closing rate and sales? 24:35 "There will come a time where you have to pick up the phone." 25:01 "Most people don't schedule the right amount of time to do their sales activities." 25:20 Making sure you have the discipline to do your sales activities every day. 26:06 If you don't make time to pick up the phone, you won't carry on in business for very long 26:49 "When you're busiest, that's when you need to step on the gas the hardest." 27:13 Triggered emails and the advantages they have over traditional email blasts 27:38 Relevance gets rewarded 27:49 The analogy of the two pet owners (brilliant way to explain email marketing) 29:15 Triggered emails + relevance + information means you can talk directly to a specific customer 30:03 Using email sequences to take people on a journey through the sales funnel 30:30 Understanding leads to trust, which leads to closing sales 30:54 The importance of email segmenting 32:54 "If you're too big for the small jobs, you're too small for the big jobs." 34:38 Outros and ending remarks 37:19 Easter egg outtakes     InTouch CRM http://www.intouchcrm.com/     ==================   You can find additional show notes on the WP-Tonic website: https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/127-james-white-ceo-intouch-crm/   ==================   Subscribe to WP-Tonic on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wp-tonic-wordpress-podcast/id893083124?mt=2   If you get value from our twice weekly WordPress podcast, we would love it if you'd give us a review on iTunes. :)   ==================   WP-Tonic is not just a WordPress maintenance service, but publishers of a twice weekly WordPress business podcast where we talk with some of the most successful people in WordPress development and online marketing.

This week, our round table of WordPress experts discussed the topic, "What's Your Overall Online Strategy?" Our panel this week: Sallie Goetch https://www.wpfangirl.com/ Kim Shivler https://howtobuildanonlinecourse.com/ Jackie D'Elia https://jackiedelia.com/ Johnathan Denwood https://www.wp-tonic.com/   Before the main topic, we discussed some relevant WordPress news stories. WordPress News Stories 1 - Headway Themes Confirms Financial Difficulties, Issues Apology to Customers https://wptavern.com/headway-themes-confirms-financial-difficulties-issues-apology-to-customers 2 - Zerif Lite Suspended from WordPress Theme Directory, 300K Users Left Without Updates https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-suspended-from-wordpress-theme-directory-300k-users-left-without-updates  3 - Review Signal Publishes 2016 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks https://wptavern.com/review-signal-publishes-2016-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-suspended-from-wordpress-theme-directory-300k-users-left-without-updates  3 - Review Signal Publishes 2016 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks https://wptavern.com/review-signal-publishes-2016-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks Show Table of Contents: 0:00 Intros 2:04 Weekly Stories for the World of WordPress 2:25 Headway Themes Confirms Financial Difficulties 8:25 Zerif Lite theme suspended from WordPress theme directory 15:02 Review Signal's 2016 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks 16:12 The biggest surprise is where WP Engine placed 17:50 Other surprises from the hosting benchmarking 20:40 The WordPress hosting Jonathan recommends 22:30 Americans are terrible at geography 24:03 The main topic begins 24:29 Strategy is often overlooked with web projects 25:40 You will be disappointed if you don't figure out why you need a website in the first place 26:30 Ask the "Why?" questions early on 27:31 Start with the outcome and work backwards 28:40 What planning does it take to build a brand? 29:30 Defining your ideal customer is the first step 30:55 Return on investment and getting traffic 32:10 Do you have a platform? 32:45 "It's not the amount; it's the idea." 33:40 Starting from nothing is difficult, having an audience makes everything easier 34:50 Building your authority is the key 36:10 "It's not traffic; it's people." 38:01 "You want people who are looking for what you really do." 39:00 The one thing Kim needs to know before she builds you a membership site 40:28 Where many content membership sites drop the ball 41:10 The most common mistake when it comes to divvying up a website budget 42:54 Where 90% of your focus needs to be on your website 44:48 Large businesses are not immune to lack of content strategy 46:10 Planning your business model realistically 46:46 A compelling story of how enterprise clients also need web strategy from their web consultants 49:00 Ordinary consumers expect a certain level of polish and sophistication 50:38 "Is your user having a good user experience on the site?" 52:29 Podcast Outros   Be sure to get more bonus content from episode 126 on the WP-Tonic website: https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/126-whats-your-overall-online-strategy/   =========================   WP-Tonic is not only a WordPress maintenance and support service, but we publish a twice weekly WordPress business podcast where we talk with some of the most successful people in WordPress development and online marketing.  

Over a year ago I wrote one our most popular posts on the WP-Tonic’s website about the importance of speed when it comes to your WordPress-powered website in regards to usability and how Google ranks your website in SEO (search engine optimization) terms.   https://www.wp-tonic.com/blog/11-the-key-steps-to-make-your-wordpress-site-load-faster/   In this episode, we talk about 11 things you can do to make your WordPress website faster. A lot of this is based on a 3500+ word article that Jonathan put together for the WP-Tonic, but we further extrapolate the ideas and techniques talked about there. https://www.wp-tonic.com/blog/11-the-key-steps-to-make-your-wordpress-site-load-faster/ Show Table of Contents: 0:00 Intros 2:06 Reviewing the 11 steps to making your WordPress site faster 2:59 Page speed testing tools 3:23 Google Page Speed Insights 3:48 Time to first byte is an SEO factor 4:05 Why large sites spend so much time on page speed 4:44 The waterfall view of browser resources 5:28 Chrome Developer Tools to see the waterfall view 5:50 How to find the time to first byte for your website 6:26 DNS and page speed performance 8:28 How hosting affects page speed 9:03 You will never have a fast website with shared hosting 10:29 Why managed WordPress hosting is superior to general hosting 11:52 The near-future: PHP7 and HTTP/2 12:23 What is better? nginx or Apache? 13:00 The biggest performance difference between general hosts and managed hosting 15:40 External calls and HTTP requests can affect page speed 17:20 How caching can reduce HTTP requests and improve page speed 117:52 Why you need to talk to a consultant before buying a base theme 18:35 The dirty secret about how 85% of web shops pick WordPress themes 20:40 Visual builders based on shortcodes are terrible for performance 21:38 Page speed affects your marketing efforts 23:25 You get what you pay for 24:28 The quality and number of plugins can affect page speed 28:20 How caching helps your page speed 31:04 Web fonts: how much does this affect page speed? 31:55 A short history of web fonts 33:21 The down side of using web fonts 36:07 Image optimization, and how easy it is to add tons of page weight without knowing it 37:21 A short history of web images 37:59 A huge problem with modern web design and website performance 40:35 Image compression tools like Kraken.io 41:50 CDNs: What are they, and how do they help page speed? 42:30 How CDNs work 45:40 General tips for learning more about improving page speed 47:45 Outros and some interesting news   =========================   WP-Tonic is not only a WordPress maintenance and support service, but we publish a twice weekly WordPress podcast where we talk with some of the brightest minds in WordPress development and online marketing.  

We sat down with Matt Inglot of the web agency Tilted Pixel, the Freelance Transformation podcast to talk about growing an agency, how to get web clients, and the benefits of having a podcast.   Show Table of Contents: 0:00 Intros 1:11 Matt's origin story and founding Tilted Pixel 3:00 Burning the candle at three ends 3:28 Early missteps in running an agency 4:16 Figure out your Why 4:47 Don't copycat others; they may not be doing what's best for longevity 5:52 Find a mentor who has already done what you want to do 7:15 By trying to serve everyone, you serve no one (well) 7:54 Set minimum projects budgets! 9:01 Deliver results for a specific subset of the market 10:56 Step One: Establish the problem you are solving 11:27 Find out more about the business, then identify the pain 13:43 How do you know when it's time to grow your agency? 15:45 When you are a solo freelancer, you may not be charging enough - but not for the reasons you may think 18:11 If you hire employees, you must be ready to grow in a big way 19:35 Does having a larger team really make it easier to win larger projects? 22:13 What does Matt look for when hiring contractors or employees? 23:04 The one thing that will end your working relationship with an agency 24:56 What are some marketing strategies that work for web developers? 26:10 The marketing channel that you can most easily dominate in your local market 28:37 Client generation strategies, and when they work 29:31 When client generation strategies don't work 31:37 The real reason times are tough for generalist web shops right now 34:04 Have a repeatable strategy for attracting clients 34:40 "If you're a freelancer, you only need about three to ten clients a year". 36:34 What inspired Matt to target consultants and freelancers with his podcast 38:14 Building a network through a podcast 39:59 Podcast outros   Be sure to catch bonus content from this episode on the WP-Tonic site at https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/124-wp-tonic-matt-inglot-of-titled-pixel-on-building-a-micro-agency-and-podcast/   Guest: Matt Inglot https://www.tiltedpixel.com/ https://freelancetransformation.com/     =====================   Remember WP-Tonic is not only a WordPress maintenance and support service, but we publish a twice weekly WordPress podcast where we talk with some of the brightest minds in WordPress development and online marketing.  

Our panel of WordPress experts discusses social media, and what role it plays in our own businesses. We examine some news stories circulating through the WordPress ecosystem. Our panel this week: Kim Shivler, Sallie Goetch, Jackie D'Elia, John Locke. We record our round table episodes on FireTalk every Saturday at 10am PST.   Our news stories this week: 1 - Teaching you isn’t free development time https://www.thewpcrowd.com/wordpress/teaching-isnt-free-development/ 2 - Why You Want to Get WordPress Plugin Support Licenses https://maintainn.com/2016/06/wordpress-plugin-support-licenses/ 3 -  Zerif Lite theme: Make WordPress Themes https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/35906   Main Topic: Social Media, what role does it play in your WordPress business?   0:00 Intros 2:15 News Story 1: Teaching You Doesn't Mean Free Development Time 4:07 Meetup Groups and boundary lines 7:20 If you hire a cheap developer, we can't train them for free 7:50 The difference between pointing people at an answer and doing all the heavy lifting for them 9:24 List of resources where you can learn web development 9:50 Buying a theme doesn't make you a web developer 10:40 Clients aren't the issue; it's web professionals selling client services 12:10 Be willing to invest in yourself to further your education 13:04 News Story 2: Why You Want to Get Plugin Support Licenses 13:30 Clients need to control their plugin licenses 14:14 When developer-only licenses are okay 15:39 The "What if I got hit by a bus tomorrow?" contingency 16:38 Why piggybacking off your developer's plugin licenses is a bad idea 17:19 News Story 3: Zerif LIte theme compliance issues on the WP themes repo 17:50 Why do themes on the free repo try to bend the rules? 20:10 Moving data in 200k theme installs is problematic 21:09 Why custom post types should always be in a plugin 21:55 A free listing in the theme repo means you have to follow the rules 23:20 Backwards compatibility when you've already built stuff out in a different direction 24:55 The logic of separating theme and plugin data so sites don't break 26:05 The fear of backlash when making large-scale theme changes 26:35 Main topic: Social media and WordPress 26:45 The ROI of social media 27:45 Using Twitter cards for lead generation 29:22 The social side of social media 30:15 LinkedIn Groups can have a ROI 31:24 Social media can lead to business...indirectly 32:26 Social media for networking in your industry 33:37 Finding where your clients are hanging out 34:08 Social media can build your authority and brand 35:34 Curating content instead of blasting out your own content 36:36 Certain businesses only hang out on LinkedIn 37:23 Reposting blog content on Medium and Linkedin Plus 37:49 Curating content on social 38:45 You have to have enough content to share 39:10 Developing relationships through sharing content on social media 40:08 Defining your brand by what you share and curate 41:08 GaggleAMP for spreading content through social 42:19 Instead of retweeting, add your own quote or commentary 44:46 How do businesses use social media? 45:19 Focus on your audience; don't try to do everything 46:18 Read what you're retweeting 48:05 Only have links to social feeds you are using 49:19 Time is the big issue 50:31 Focus on the social media channel where you feel comfortable and where your audience is 51:29 Add value without doing promotional posts 24/7 52:19 Having an informational hub on social 52:50 Social media is a community and a two-way street 53:38 Don't use social as another e-blast 54:20 Using social media as an educational platform and value add 56:08 "Engage me on the platform I'm on." 56:54 Our favorite social plugins for WordPress 1:00:26 The danger of using a social profile as your de facto website 1:01:12 It comes down to ownership; you need your own platform 1:02:59 Don't bank your future on the future of a particular social platform 1:04:42 Own your core. Own, don't rent. 1:06:40 Podcast outros   Read the article on the WP-Tonic website: https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/123-wp-tonic-round-table-social-media-wordpress-business/   ====================   Remember WP-Tonic is not only a WordPress maintenance and support service, but we publish a twice weekly WordPress podcast where we talk with some of the smartest people in WordPress development and online marketing.