Oct 29, 2017What Makes a Website Expensive?Because WordPress itself is free, open-source software, and there are many good free themes and plugins, people have the mistaken idea that building a WordPress website should be free — -or at least very cheap. While you can set up a WordPress.com …Web Development7 min readWeb Development7 min read
Oct 13, 2017Expectation Management Pro Tip: Treat Having a Website Like Owning a CarThis is a spinoff of a longer article I published on my WP Fangirl blog, originally posted on LinkedIn and revised slightly for Medium. The secret to successful outcomes is managing expectations. If you make over-inflated claims about your product or service, people are bound to be disappointed. …Tech6 min readTech6 min read
Oct 13, 2017What You Need to Know Before You Can Hire a Web DeveloperIt’s not easy to hire a web developer. If you are a typical business owner or marketing manager, you don’t write code at all. That makes it hard for you to know whether the person whose portfolio you’re looking at writes good code, or even good-enough code. …Web Development4 min readWeb Development4 min read
Jan 29, 2017WP-Tonic 159: WordPress Form PluginsAlthough we weren’t in a position to provide a comprehensive overview, Jonathan Denwood, John Locke, Kim Shivler and I did our best to compare some of the popular form-building plugins for WordPress in Episode 159 of the WP-Tonic Podcast. So. Many. Form. Plugins. I remember well when Gravity Forms was the only sophisticated form…Gravity Forms5 min readGravity Forms5 min read
Jan 29, 2017WP-Tonic 157: Coordinating Complex Site MigrationsIn Episode 157 of the WP-Tonic podcast, I got together with Jonathan Denwood, John Locke, Jackie D’Elia, and special guest Robert Abela of WP White Security to talk about site migrations. Moving a WordPress Site to a New Host Moving a WordPress site from one host to another is usually pretty straightforward, especially if you are keeping the…Site Migration4 min readSite Migration4 min read
Jan 28, 2017How to Trust Your Website DesignerMy colleague Cody Landefeld just posted a great video about the difficulties that companies face in finding the right person (or team) to build their websites. I’ve encountered similar situations myself: clients come to me after someone else has disappeared in the middle of a project, or worse, taken their money and produced nothing at all. The WordPress professionals I know are honest, but not everyone is a good fit for every project–or every client–even if they have perfect integrity. If you’re looking to hire someone to (re)build your site for you, take 2 minutes and watch this video.1 min read1 min read
Jan 8, 2017How to Choose (and Crop) a Mobile-Friendly Hero ImageUnless you’ve been living under a rock, you know your website has to be mobile-friendly to avoid search penalties. Google laid down the law about this in 2015. …Mobile Friendly Websites7 min readMobile Friendly Websites7 min read
Oct 25, 2015WordPress Is Not Intuitive. There’s No Such Thing as an Intuitive Interface.People have described WordPress as “intuitive,” but in fact we’ve known since at least 1994 that no user interface, online or off, is “intuitive.” If you grew up driving a horse-drawn buggy (people still do), then it’s obvious to you that the way to turn your vehicle to the left…WordPress4 min readWordPress4 min read
Apr 27, 2015This isn’t about Millennials vs. Baby Boomers. It’s about youth vs. maturity.I’m reading Millennials and Management by Lee Caraher after hearing her speak at BACN on Friday. The book analyzes various stereotypes about Millennials and assesses their basis in reality, as well as suggesting methods for developing successful intergenerational teams.Millennials7 min readMillennials7 min read
Sep 9, 2014The Haunted HighwayIt starts as soon as I see the sign that tells me I’m entering Kern County, whenever I drive south on Interstate 5 to Los Angeles. I know I was well past the county line when it happened, but my eyes dart off to the right, gauging the thickness of…6 min read6 min read
