Archives
Registration, Check-in & Networking Breakfast
Lessons in Plugin Development: Successes and Failures of a Large Free Plugin
Getting any plugin on the WordPress.org forum can be a lot of work. Taking a plugin like Better WP Security (now iThemes Security) to more than 2.5 million downloads when it isn’t your full-time job can seem nearly impossible. This talk will discuss how I built Better WP Security to one of the largest plugins on WordPress.org including what I did right and what I could have done better. Specific tips will involve handling support, marketing a plugin and squashing bugs when you wear all the hats (developer, marketer, teacher, project manager, etc). This session will help to equip you with the tools you will need to not just get your plugin out there but also to make sure it is successful.
Working as an Out-of-House Developer, or Maintaining Retainers
One of the lifebloods of our industry is maintaining retainers for clients. As a developer, this means keeping track of core changes, potentially hundreds of plugins, and doing custom development on top of it all. I’ll be going through the day-to-day tips and tricks I’ve found to make this easier over the years as a freelance developer and now working for an agency. Specifics include: setting up VVV for local testing, keeping an eye on the make blog and slack channels, writing plugins for best practices and for easier sharing of code.
Keynote: Theft, Tributes & Collaboration
The best things in our world are built on top of the ideas and discoveries of others. Yet we all feel like we have to be original in order to be valuable. In this talk, Carl will show a new way to think about collaboration by embracing creativity as a group endeavor. Examples abound that show us how much better we are when we put away the concept of intellectual property and embrace the best ideas of our time.
How Much Can I Charge?
It’s great to solve customers’ problems, but what can you charge? Poor pricing decisions can destroy a company’s financial future and mean the difference between market success and market failure. In this presentation, Adam will present techniques to determine the most appropriate pricing strategy for your digital products and services.
Agile Approach: Sales, Onboarding, Research and Discovery
You’ve probably heard the word “Agile” in regard to development practices. Maybe you’ve even tried implementing it yourself! In this session, we’ll give a brief explanation of what Agile development looks like, show why it’s helpful in setting your project up for success, and explain how we use it as part of our regular process and workflow at WP Valet. From there, we’ll open it up to a QA session with WP Valet teammates James Tryon & Mason James.
The Power of Recurring Income
Unpredictable income creates stress and anxiety for many freelancers. Learn how to stabilize your business with a growing revenue stream of recurring income based on WordPress maintenance plans. We’ll talk about why this is important, how to package and price your services, and how to sell your services to clients.
Sunday Lunch
The Challenges (and Solutions) of Support
When it comes to plugins and themes, your customer base will range from brand new WordPress users to expert developers which will result in all kinds of customer support questions. In this talk, we will discuss different techniques and strategies for supporting your products and assisting your users. You will also learn about many of the challenges you may face and I will offer a few tricks to overcome them. Lastly, we will examine the ways to minimize the amount of time you spend on customer support while also ensuring that your users receive the best customer support.