Month: November 2018

Topic: Building API Services for your Plugins Using the WordPress REST API

CTO of WPMU DEV (140+ premium plugins, services, and support) and Edublogs (hosting 3 million+ education blogs), managing a large team of developers and sysadmins around the globe. Cloud architect and WordPress plugin developer specializing in Multisite for 10 years, working from home in Dallas. Proud father of 3 and a world travel nut.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I started when I created my first multisite network, missionsplace.com. I began learning to develop plugins for it, sharing them with the community. Then eventually started working as a plugin developer full time!

What do you do with WordPress?

I’m the Chief Technical Officer of Incsub, LLC (WPMU DEV, CampusPress). I spend my days leading our systems team to build and support really cool WordPress projects, whether it’s cloud API services like WP Smush, enterprise and entry level managed WordPress hosting, or designing and building architectures, policies, and guidelines for the technical side of our products, I have my hands in it all. I just love building cool new things.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

I really enjoy attending and speaking at WordCamps. And it’s often the only chance I get to meet and hang out with fellow members of our distributed team.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I want to support my local DFW WordPress community, and meet people in person in the same niche as me.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

I love building API services, and the challenge of scaling them in the cloud.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope they learn the effectiveness of a new business model for plugins, to get ongoing subscription revenue by turning them into a SaaS (Software as a Service) by providing services via APIs on their own servers.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: The Must Do‚’s Before Going Live

Keri spent about 10 years working in customer service in restaurants before she landed her first Account Management gig in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was there that she met 2 amazing women who took her under their wing to teach her WordPress — and she immediately fell in love. After about a year of that, she decided to move back to her hometown of San Antonio Texas to attended Codeup (a career accelerator for Web Development), and then fell back in love with customer service. Now she gets to do the two things that she loves on a daily basis — Help clients and work with WordPress. She couldn’t be happier 🙂

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I started off my journey as an Account Manager for a Digital Marketing Company that used WordPress to develop websites. It was there that 2 of the website developers taught me about WordPress so I would be able to relay changes and requests easier to them and the support team. That led me to teaching myself a little CSS, and eventually let me to attend Codeup (a career accelerator with for Web Development) where I learned more CSS and how to work with PHP, which has helped me to better understand custom built WordPress websites.

What do you do with WordPress?

I run the support team for WebTegrity in San Antonio Texas. I’m able to mix my love for Account Management and my love for WordPress in ensuring my clients needs are met and issues are troubleshot and resolved in a timely manner. I also head up the Quality Assurance on all of our websites before they go live and are sent to the client for final review.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

The WordPress community is amazing! I love being involved with a group of professionals who just want to lift each other up and make WordPress the best it can be for everyone. I also really appreciate the support and help that I can get from the Forums at any given time.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

As a Texas native, I was excited to apply to DFW WordCamp because I’ve heard great things about WordCampDFW. Also, Dallas and Ft Worth are both so beautiful!

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

As Director of Digital Support at WebTegrity, something I take pride in is making sure all of our websites are running smoothly. I keep these same standards when I go through my QA list. I’m the final set of eyes on all new website and need to be sure there are no errors or issues with the website. I think Quality Assurance is extremely important because sometimes we get so used to doing something over and over, and we just need a checklist and another set of eyes on our work to be sure we haven’t missed anything. There are also a few plugins I want to speak about that we as a team have found to be extremely helpful for your website, post launch.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I am hoping everyone decides to use my skeleton QA list and grow it to match their own business. I’d love if everyone was able to allow 30 minutes – 1 hour for QA at the end of every web build, and I’m hoping everyone will continue with monthly site maintenance to be sure it’s always up to date and running at it’s best.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: How To Use Your Blog To Become A Digital Influencer

Elayna Fernández, known worldwide as The Positive MOM, is an award-winning storyteller, a master digital strategist, and an avid student of pain. Elayna helps moms transform their pain story into positive growth, step into balance, and create joy and success on their own terms – in all areas of life. Elayna travels the world as an International keynote speaker and panelist in the topics of motherhood, mindset, and mompreneurship. Her guidance encourages, empowers, and equips millions of moms in 134 countries to increase their impact, income, and influence, without guilt, shame, or regrets in motherhood. As an influencer for over 13 years, Elayna has partnered with over 250 brands and has made her blog her main source of income. She loves to teach, train, and mentor others to do the same! Elayna is Certified Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer, Certified Passion Test Facilitator, Certified DreamBuilder Coach, Certified Success Principles Trainer, a graduate of the Steve Harvey School for Business Acceleration, and a web designer for over 20 years. She has been awarded as Best Marketer, Mom Entrepreneur of the Year, Best Latina Lifestyle Blogger of both 2015 and 2016, and the 2017 Best Family and Parenting Creator at the TECLA Awards, and she has been named one of the Top Latina Influencers in the USA two consecutive years. ThePositiveMOM.com, has been ranked one of 100 Top Moms Blogs Worldwide both in 2016 and 2017. Elayna is often featured in global media including ABC, NBC, FOX, Telemundo, Univision, Latina Magazine, CNN en Español, The Huffington Post, and is a contributing writer to Thrive Global! Elayna has spoken on stages such as S.H.E. Summit, Texas Conference for Women, eWomenNetwork, BlogHer, Hispanicize, Mom 2.0 Summit, Texas Social Media Conference, Work Hacker, Rocks Digital, Boy Scouts of America, Rotary International, and more! She’s also been a member of both the BlogHer and Hispanicize advisory boards. Born and raised in a slum in the Dominican Republic and a single mom for many years, Elayna now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with her family. Her philosophy is “BE Positive and You’ll BE Powerful!”

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I started my web developer journey about 17 years ago when I was pregnant with my first daughter. I had been working as a web marketing strategist, so I really wanted to learn to code and to understand how the web worked.

After becoming a single mom of two toddlers in late 2004, I decided to start my own business and I launched my web design company, building websites and blogs for small business owners in the WordPress platform. I also started blogging and using social networks and other digital tools to increase visibility, credibility, and profitability for myself and my clients.

When I found WordPress, I fell in love with it instantly and I was in awe at everything that was available to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners. I made the switch to WordPress and my business has skyrocketed ever since.

What do you do with WordPress?

I use WordPress to help moms transform their pain story into positive growth, step into balance, and create joy and success on their own terms – in all areas of life.

WordPress has allowed me to encourage, empower, and equip millions of moms in 134 countries to increase their impact, income, and influence, without guilt, shame, or regrets in motherhood.

I recommend WordPress to all the moms I mentor because it’s flexible, intuitive, and user-friendly enough for a beginner that wants to use it for personal reasons, plenty of freedom someone who wants to implement a complex e-commerce and membership site, and everyone in between. WordPress has made a huge difference in my life and in the lives the women I coach and write for on my blog.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

The WordPress community is friendly, empowering, and supportive. WordCamps are all about community. It’s networking driven by passion and contribution. It’s so much more than a conference, yet you learn so much, because there are several different tracks for developers, designers, new users, bloggers, social media enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs alike.

WordCamp is for everyone because WordPress is about people!

WordCamp because it’s so affordable, and happens in so many locations that everyone could attend – and must! The speakers are generous, the sponsors are generous, the organizers are incredibly generous (organizing a conference is so much work – and you even get a t-shirt!), and the attendees are generous, because we all learn from each other.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I have been speaking at WordCamps around the world because I love to give back and to surround myself with like-minded and like-hearted people. WordCamp DFW has my heart because everyone involved is like one big family!

I am looking forward to reconnect with old friends and colleagues, and meeting more WordPress lovers, users, and supporters in the DFW area. I love sharing what I’ve learned as a web strategist and blogger, as well as learning from other experts, networking, and collaborating.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

I decided to teach this hands-on workshop because I want everyone to understand exactly how they can monetize their blog and become influencers by using simple strategies and tools they already have at their disposal through WordPress. I have been an influencer for 14 years and I love what I do, and I believe we can all be influencers and impact our communities in a positive way.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I hope my audience is inspired to take action, empowered with the strategies to begin monetizing their online presence and positioning themselves as leaders and influencers in their industry without making costly mistakes or wasting their time.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!

Topic: Managing Your WordPress Projects With Ease

LaToya is an Online Project Manager who helps busy entrepreneurs streamline their processes and get their creative ideas out into the world. She gets excited about timelines, due dates and clear plans. She has over a decade of project management and consulting expertise and a knack for translating project needs in a way that makes them understandable and executable. With a foundation in learning and development, business operations, process improvements, and new products she uses her skills in project management and digital marketing to specialize in managing membership and e-learning site launches driving efficiency and results.

How did you get involved in WordPress?

I was doing research on the various website platforms and came across WordPress and checked it out based on user reviews. As I got more familiar with WordPress, I loved the flexibility and functionality and wanted to learn more. I took some WordPress training courses and was hooked from there. The rest is history.

What do you do with WordPress?

I build and/or manage the design, development and implementation of WordPress websites with a membership or e-learning platform.

What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?

So far my experience with the WordPress community has been enlightening. Everyone has been inviting and is willing to share their knowledge and expertise.

Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?

I enjoy learning as well as speaking and WordCamp provides me the opportunity to do both.

Why did you decide to speak on your topic?

I decided to speak on my topic due to my personal experience and it is something I am passionate about.

What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?

I’m hoping people leave the talk refreshed and empowered with new ideas on how they can streamline their WordPress projects by easily implementing at least one of the nuggets I share.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!