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Archives for August 2019

The Importance of Staging

Anytime you work on your site, especially if you are working on the files, running updates, or adding new features, you should never do it on the live site first. Bad things can happen. You should always test on a staging or development site before making the changes live.  

Having a staging site is essential for testing updates, adding new plugins, or trying a new theme. It is like the “try it before you buy it” approach for your site. 

First, find out if your hosting company has the ability to provide you with a staging site. If so, that is great! I know Flywheel, Pantheon, and WP Engine have the option for at minimum one staging site per live site. Flywheel and WP Engine will give you one staging instance. Pantheon can give you up to 10 multi-dev instances. 

If your hosting company does not offer a staging site built within their system, never fear as there are other options you can use. They are simple or no configuration needed to get a staging site setup. 

Plugins like WP Staging can offer you a temporary staging site built within your install. It offers a easy, no-configuration way of having a temporary staging site. 

You can also setup a subdomain on your site to handle your staging needs in cPanel. You will go into your cPanel and find the Subdomains option. Name your new subdomain as staging (or whatever you would like). Then create a FTP account for your subdomain.  This will help you to keep your sites separate. You can then upload WordPress to the staging site. You can then use a migration plugin to make a copy of your live site to move to the staging. You can use something like All-In-One WP Migration or Duplicator to move the site. 

There are also local options you can use as well. Local instances go onto your computer and saved “locally”. One option is to use Desktop Server. Their paid version has Direct Deploy where you can push from your local instance to your live site. This is a great option for if you do not want to try to make the staging site on a cPanel.

Whichever you choose to do, it is always a great idea to test before you push live. Also remember to make a backup before running updates. Taking precautionary steps first, always ensures that if something breaks, it is not permanent. 

WP Weekly Spotlight – Kimberly Lipari

Kimberly Lipari headshot

I live outside of New Orleans, Louisiana with my husband and 3 daughters. I spend most of my time doing things with my family (translate: shuttling kids around and being wife/mom). I really enjoy watching my children grow and experience new things, it’s my main hobby in life right now.
My favorite place to be is outside somewhere. Even if it’s just weeding my flowerbeds or garden. I like good food and find cooking it very therapeutic. Finding new flavors and food combinations are exciting. I squeeze in the rare murder mystery novel when I travel, I love Agatha Christie and the Scarpetta series.

Michele: What do you do in the WordPress ecosystem?

Kimberly: I am the CoFounder of a Professional Website Management company. My job is less WordPress these days, my title is CEO so I spend a lot of time doing stuff surrounding the company and personnel needs.

Michele: How did you get involved with WordPress?

Kimberly: What feels like a bazillion years ago, I applied to work product support at WPMUDEV. I had no clue what I was doing, only my own WordPress site that I had crashed a dozen times. I cited that as my ‘real world’ experience and Mason unwittingly hired me.

Michele: Please tell me one story of someone who has inspired you within the WordPress Community?

Kimberly: My most vivid memory of getting hooked on the community is less inspirational and more warm fuzzy feels. My first WordCamp was in Miami. I was in awe that whole trip. I remember towards the end of the camp I heard Pippin talk. The overarching theme was about helping each other helps the community at large. It was such a warm message at a tech conference and I thought “this is really the nicest largest group of people ever, I’m not leaving it”.

Michele: What does the Open Source Community mean to you?

Kimberly: I knew nothing about Open Source when I found WordPress. Open Source and GPL were new terms I’d never heard of. My investment in these communities is the time I’ve spent working among the people and learning the ecosystem surrounding Open Source. It’s an amazing source of opportunity and attracts some incredibly interesting

Michele: Please name some of your favorite plugins. 

Kimberly: Any plugin that is coded with best practice and well supported with frequent updates.

Michele: Do you have a favorite theme or framework you like to use?

Kimberly: Genesis has always been kind to me, I’m not a developer.

Michele: If you could change one thing in WordPress, what would it be?

Kimberly: Tough, because if you change anything you change the nature of the community and its essence. But if I had to pick I’d like to see more of a global community focus on customer service. I believe that exceptional support from all corners and types of WordPress businesses could really create a name for WordPress in higher and larger spaces.

Michele: What is your most memorable WordPress moment?

Kimberly: The first kids camp I helped with. Those are all my favorite memories.

Michele: What is one piece of advice you would give to someone just getting started with WordPress?

Kimberly: Try stuff. Break shit. Ask questions. That’s three, sorry…

Michele: What do you think is in store for the future of WordPress?

Kimberly: I think this depends on the community’s ability to think big and adopt change. The market in WordPress is moving upwards on a curve that is leading away from commoditizing and the DIY blogger stereotypes. More commerce, higher pay, a general shift in the outside world’s view of WordPress is on the horizon.

Michele: Just for fun, share one memory that makes you proud to be a part of the WordPress Community.

Kimberly: What I do for a living is a mystery to many folks in my life. Being able to talk about my experiences outside of the traditional office setting, the people I meet from across the globe, and the team we have built at Valet makes me incredibly proud.

You can find Kimberly Lipari online at Valet.

If you find these interesting and would like to be spotlighted yourself, please see our interview form.

WP Weekly Spotlight – David Hayes

Holder of a BA in History, David is WordPress developer and educator who loves to teach, share, and try to be kind. He runs WPShout, and strives to make it the best place online to learn to be a WordPress developer. Outside of that, he loves board games, bicycling, and puppies.

Michele: What do you do in the WordPress ecosystem?

David: I teach people how to do WordPress better

Michele: How did you get involved with WordPress?

David: I started out in WordPress in 2007. Without any idea of how a blogger could or would make money, I made a WordPress site and started writing. The business model never worked—because I lacked one, take that as your lesson, please :). I was mostly just a pro-user, but with time I started to get into customizing themes, then make a few plugins, and today I’ve built out at least dozens (if not hundreds) of WordPress sites for myself and clients.

Michele: Please tell me one story of someone who has inspired you within the WordPress Community?

David: My friend Amber Hinds is an awesome story. Similar (though more successful) than my start, Amber was a blogger. She (like me) found herself without a business model, but the ability to make WordPress sites turned into a shockingly marketable skill. She’s now running her own business–Road Warrior Creative–and has hired her husband out from his more traditional job. And just this year they’re planning to start on their dream to be mobile for bit parts of the year in their big green RV.

Michele: What does the Open Source Community mean to you?

David: To me open source is about ownership, more than anything else. I think each software library has its own little ecosystem, but those don’t come free with open source. I think both WordPress and PHP (the open source spaces I travel in most) are amazing because of the people who put in the energy to build a meaningful community out of the collection of people using the lines of code.

Michele: Please name some of your favorite plugins. 

David: Pods is my current infatuation. I find Yoast helpful, and Jetpack I’ve come to appreciate a lot

Michele: Do you have a favorite theme or framework you like to use?

David: No, not really. Twenty Seventeen is great though 🙂

Michele: If you could change one thing in WordPress, what would it be?

David: I think I’d love to see at little more structure and vision at the heart of the project. I think that Matt Mullenweg does a good job, but I think he can be a little hands-off and then (seemingly) capricious, by turns. Those things scare off some great contributors, and I’d love that that didn’t happen.

Michele: What is your most memorable WordPress moment?

David: I have very fond memories of the first WordCamp I went to, in Boston in 2013. At that point I’d used WordPress for about six years, but that was the first time that I saw in person that there were real physical people I could meet, chat with, and get to know, who were there trying to help each other.

Michele: What is one piece of advice you would give to someone just getting started with WordPress?

David: Just do it. There’s no substitute for action. Whether we’re talking about making your first site, writing your first line of code, or hiring a writer, there nothing that you get better at without trying. So you’ve got to learn to accept that it’ll sometimes be hard and sometimes you’ll spend hours or weeks frustrated. But that’s where the learning comes from.

Michele: What do you think is in store for the future of WordPress?

David: I hope it continues to empower non-technical people to publish on the web. I love the internet, and I love WordPress because it also loves the internet. And while HTML is great, WordPress has succeeded by being a better tool to have a personal web presence than anything else, and I think the latest news with Facebook and Twitter just continues to underscore that there’s no substitute for your own online space with your own tools underlying it.

You can find David Hayes online at WP Shout.

If you find these interesting and would like to be spotlighted yourself, please see our interview form.

5 Things to Consider Before Opening Your Virtual Storefront

Opening an online shop is becoming a trend these days, and it’s not hard to see why. After all, the number of digital buyers is anticipated to grow to 2.14 billion by 2021. 

Fortunately, this means your potential online customer base is constantly growing. But it also means that your competition is growing too. If you don’t want to get left behind, you need to learn how to play the game in an online space. So here are five tips to help you start a successful virtual storefront.

1. Have a business plan that covers the online space

Before jumping into the online world, you need to have a proper business plan in place. Even if you’ve already drafted one for a brick-and-mortar location, you should re-plan, as the online atmosphere is drastically different. Plan how you’ll finance your online venture, choose the right product or service to sell, and set your business goals. 

If you have any big ideas or stretch goals for the future, get them down in writing too. It’ll make it easier for you to reference and reassess as your company grows.

2. Pick the right domain name

Once you’ve got a solid business plan, it’s time to find the right domain name. Here are three tips to keep in mind as you pick your URL:

  • Don’t overdo it. Long domains can be hard to follow, giving potential customers more room for error. Stick with clarity over cleverness.
  • Match it with your business name, if possible. This helps customers remember your site. If someone else has already registered your business name as a domain, consider adding your city name after it or a “the” in front of it as a differentiator—just don’t get too complex.
  • Choose a name that is easy to spell. Amazon is a good example. It’s easy to spell and easy to remember. Do the same thing with your online shop. Avoid numbers and hyphens, too, as they are difficult to remember and may lead to typos.

3. Find a hosting setup and address security

Plenty of services offer domain hosting, web hosting, a content management system, and e-commerce options all in one, while others cater to a more piecemeal approach. WordPress has two options (differentiated by a .com and a .org domain) to let you go the route you’re more comfortable with.

Whichever way you go, make sure your host has strong security and a good reputation, especially if customers will be entering sensitive data or financial information through your site. You should also take steps on your end to learn what you can do to secure your site against potential hacks.

4. Do some online market research

To succeed in online marketing, you must understand what your customers want. Do some digging into these three key marketing strategies:

  • SEO: Invest in Search Engine Optimization to boost your rankings in Google and help customers find your business site effectively.
  • Social media marketing: Get your business onto the social media platforms where your customer base is most likely to be.
  • PPC: Bid on relevant keywords to appear in the ads at the top of searches for those terms.

An investment into all three of these areas will help your storefront gain more traction with new customers, often for less than traditional advertising efforts.

5. Invest in reliable tech

When you move into the online space, make sure you can promptly and efficiently field any issues that arise, including updating your store offerings and handling customer service requests. To do that, you’ll need a reliable tech setup, including a computer, modem/router, and a solid internet plan.

The exact models and plans you pick should depend on your budget and needs, but there are a few guidelines: The computer should have solid reviews and a support plan that will keep your device up and running. The modem/router should be advanced enough to handle up to whatever top speeds your internet plan can put out. And as for an internet provider, you’ll want to decide between a business or residential plan—the former offers benefits that the latter doesn’t, like a static IP address, better upload and download speeds, and more accessible customer service, but you may be fine with a residential plan if your operation is still small. 

Ready to Open Your Online Business?

Given how many consumers now do their shopping on the internet, having an online storefront is a great way to meet your buyers where they are. Just make sure you follow these five steps first—and you’ll be on your way to making sales and beating out competitors.