Category: WordCamp DFW Speakers

Topic: Optimize Your WordPress Website

John Peterson’s first taste of the power of the web came during college. He wrote an innovative grade distribution search engine that peaked at around 21,000 hits a day. Innovation earned John a scary call from the Dean, and later a Distinguished Student Award and a Services in Engineering Award. Don’t ever underestimate the power of crude Perl scripts and HTML! Today, John is the President at Develare and manages a team of five. John and his team love making the web work for small business, and his latest crusade is battling slow websites. In doing so, clients have had dramatic reductions in Cost per Lead (CPL) and big bumps in traffic. Whether you have 300 or 300,000 sessions per month John is happy to share tips to help you succeed. John is one of the Lead Organizers for the Houston WordPress Meetup Group and an Officer with SearchHOU. He enjoys sharing his WordPress knowledge and giving back to the community. He has spoken at the DFW WordPress Meetup Group, the Fort Worth WordPress Users Group, Houston WordPress Meetup Group, and SearchHOU.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I first used WordPress for a client project and ended up using it for a website for my wedding. However, I got deeply involved after WordCamp DFW 2010. I met so many friendly people at that event and learned so much. Definitely a life-changing experience.

What do you do with WordPress?

My company, Develare uses a process driven approach to create and manage small business websites focused on their niche in the market.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

Amazing. Everyone is so helpful and friendly. I used to be a full-time developer on the Microsoft stack, and their community is nothing like the WordPress Community.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

DFW has a vibrant digital marketing community. It will be nice to return and give back to that community that inspired me to get involved with WordPress back in 2010.

Why did you decide to speak on optimizing websites?

WordPress Optimization is a task that so many small businesses overlook. We’ve seen PageSpeed, and other optimizations reduce the Cost Per Lead (CPL) from $600 to $90. We’ve also seen PageSpeed optimizations double traffic for others. PageSpeed is an important metric that Google uses for ranking websites. No matter how much traffic a site gets, a speedy website is necessary for a pleasant user experience.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

Fantastic take-aways to optimize WordPress and improve their PageSpeed score. I’ll give lots of free methods and recommend some premium services.

I hope they’ll understand the why with a research-driven business side and then be able to take action on what they learned with the developer-driven implementation side.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Getting SEO Advantages from Social Media

Chris Silver Smith is the founder of Argent Media (argentmedia.com), a search marketing agency specializing in SEO, Local SEO, Social Media, and Online Reputation Management. Chris has provided consulting for many Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer 500 companies including Pottery Barn, LL Bean, Orbitz, Zappos, and Time Inc. Chris has served on the board of advisors for Universal Business Listing, the SEO Board of Advisors for Thomson-Reuters FindLaw, and on the board of the DFW Search Engine Marketing Association. Chris occasionally serves as an expert witness for court cases involving online trademark infringement, defamation, and search engines. As an expert witness he has served in cases involving PODS Enterprises, U-Haul, Google, The Academy Awards, GoDaddy, Fox News, and more. Chris is also a long-time columnist at Search Engine Land and Marketing Land.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I got involved in WordPress right around 2005 when my good friend, Stephan Spencer invited me to be a writer along with him on his Natural Search Blog.

What do you do with WordPress?

I came to learn how well search engines treat WordPress-based websites after I began writing and using it on that first blog. Since then, I have recommended it as the content management system of choice for many different clients, and my team and I have launched a great number of websites for our clients, built upon WordPress.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

The WordPress community has always been fantastic from my perspective! I love the enthusiasm of WordPress devotees, and am frequently impressed with the development and community support of the system itself. Whenever I have a question about implementing or modifying some part of WordPress code, it’s always been pretty easy to find the answers provided by the community.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I love bloggers and I love helping to empower people to have success with their website projects! I’ve long provided free recommendations via articles I write as well as speaking in various forums and answering questions. It’s been a long while since I participated with a WordCamp, and I’m looking forward to this one!

Why did you decide to speak on SEO advantages of social media?

I’m always interested in focusing on areas that others may dismiss, or which are newer topics for many. There has long been something of a divide between social media marketers and search engine marketers, but the overlaps in what the disciplines affect have been largely converging. I wanted to help connect the dots between social media and SEO, so I developed this presentation.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I’m hoping that those who feel lackluster about social media will discover that there’s value in including social media activities in their promotions, and I’m hoping that those who feel intimidated or out of touch with the technical aspects of search engine optimization will learn that doing it is not at all out of their reach.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: You Built It… Now What?

Lori Calcott is a co-founder and partner of webShine and WordPress SEO Hub. Originally from Pittsburgh, Lori has been working in the search space since 2001. As a paid search guru, Lori has transitioned with her clients through the various platforms starting with Overture, and currently in Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads. As a published author of The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords, Lori is a leader in the paid search field. When not at work, Lori enjoys spending time with her family in the Colorado mountains.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I have been working in the search marketing world for 12 years and have spent the last 7 years as a partner of a small agency. We work with web sites of all sizes and over the years we have found that we prefer to work with WordPress sites.

What do you do with WordPress?

Our agency has launched a new SEO tool specifically for WordPress sites, WP SEO Hub.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

I have greatly enjoyed getting to know the WordPress community. There is a good sense of entrepreneurial spirit and at the same time a willingness to share ideas and help one another out.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

We are excited about the launch of our new tool, WP SEO Hub, and hope to add to the community where we can. In my case, my knowledge is related to search marketing and hope the community finds value in learning about the tactics we employ to help sites get found.

Why did you decide to speak on getting traffic to new websites?

We often have clients come to us after they have build their sites. The sites look great and function well, but now they need to get traffic. That is where we come in.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope they have a better understanding of where to turn when looking to execute search marketing tactics or gain resources to share with their clients.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: The Basics of Content Marketing

Adam Fout is the lead content writer at Blue Steele Solutions, a full-service marketing company in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with clients all over the U.S. After completing a series of degrees in technical communication, he left the manuals and SOPs behind and made the switch to digital marketing and content creation. He writes regularly on the subject of content marketing and customer retention, is a regular contributor to a variety of publications (including PostFunnel and The Layout), and specializes in the intersection between content marketing and WordPress. To learn more, visit bluesteelesolutions.com and adamfout.com.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I learned to use WordPress when I went back to college for a technical communication degree. I fell into an internship at a small WordPress shop, Blue Steele Solutions, and I’ve been there ever since.

What do you do with WordPress?

I mostly use WordPress as a content creator, and though I have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS, I’m more comfortable using plugins and/or trusting experts for my design/development solutions. If I need to make small changes that are simple to implement, I can, but I prefer to focus on the power of WordPress for creating and disseminating content.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

The WordPress community is amazing. Though I had almost no experience in WordPress, my first WordCamp in San Diego still felt welcoming and inclusive. I was impressed by the range of folks who were involved and the willingness of everyone to join together, teach, and help. I think it’s an awesome community, and I’m grateful to be a part of it!

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I wanted to speak at DFW WordCamp because I’ve noticed many WordCamps focus heavily on design and development and have little about content creation, especially content marketing, which surprised me given how integral content is to everything we do in the WordPress community — it’s what every website is built for! I just wanted to give the content folks some love and help those who aren’t familiar with content marketing to learn how to implement it on their own site.

Why did you decide to speak on content marketing?

I love content marketing. It’s my passion and something that can make a huge difference to businesses of all sizes, and it has at its heart an altruism that isn’t often found in the world of marketing. Content marketing is the WordPress of marketing, and I love nothing more than being able to show people how they can help others AND market their website at the same time.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope my audience walks away with an immediate understanding of how to implement basic content marketing practices on their website, along with the value of doing so.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!