The House that WordPress Built

I spent a few days last week at the Pressnomics conference in Phoenix and, as always, learned a lot more than I could possible give back.

It’s amazing the number of smart people who attend and who give their time generously to speak to others. I’m not going to name names here, but it got me thinking about the house that WordPress has built.

By “house” I mean it in a few different ways.

WordPress has changed many, many lives, including my own. Careers are different. Friendships have been formed. Lives altered.

Heck, WordPress now powers over 25% of the Internet and affects every Internet user.

Some of the things I learned:

  • WordPress has literally built houses for people from the WordPress related income they have earned
  • WordPress has allowed people to work from their homes and connect with their families
  • WordPress has built amazing friendships, families, collaborations (people from different and competing companies shared rented houses to attend the conference)
  • WordPress has built a community that should (most of the time) be envied
  • WordPress updates and changes can affect people greatly

Of course, WordPress itself has not done any of this. It’s the people who have done it. People who are attracted to WordPress. People who are attracted to the WordPress community. People who are good people.

We all live in a community of WordPress houses.

[Interview with Alex King from Pressnomics 2016. Click here to see if you can’t see it]

Automattic – One Year On

“Time flies” is a cliché but so true. It has been over a year working for Automattic as I type this and I am full of emotions.

It was very difficult giving up working for myself. It was needed for my sanity, health, and for my family and now I feel like the luckiest man in the world sometimes.

Lucky because I do a job I love. Continue reading Automattic – One Year On

Automattic – Six Months On

They say the cobbler’s children have no shoes, as it is when working for a professional blog company I don’t do any blogging. So here’s a quick photo update of the Automattic Grand Meetup in Park City, Utah. Continue reading Automattic – Six Months On

Why I joined Automattic

Automattic.com stats
Now with 232 employees

It’s official – I’m now a Happiness Engineer for Automattic. I’m immensely proud to be employee 231 of this growing and unique company of truly passionate individuals.

Automattic provides WordPress.com, Jetpack, VaultPress, Simplenote, Gravatar, CloudUp… and the list goes on. I’ll be mainly providing support for users of WordPress.com, with some feature testing and bug tracking thrown in there.

It’s a company I’ve admired for a long time, and been interested in working for since I met Lance Willett back in April 2012 at WordCamp San Diego. We had a great chat about the company and the roles they offered. Fast forward to October 2013 and I bumped into Lance again at Pressnomics. We only had a brief chat them but it re-ignited a spark in me, so I investigated further. Continue reading Why I joined Automattic

The Final Week…

This is my final week providing my services for Blog Tech Guy.

It’s bittersweet as I am starting a fantastic new job for a company I admire greatly, but more about that in another post.

BTG was started in 2007 as a way to provide low-cost custom work for WordPress.org users who didn’t necessarily have a big budget or need a lot of work, but needed someone reliable. It was a one man band, and still is today.

There were only a couple of us doing this kind of work back then, and even though it’s now a crowded marketplace I’ve been fortunate enough to work off referrals only with no promotion or advertising needed.

I’ve helped over 500 clients/customers/friends in the six and a half years I’ve been going, and I will sorely miss working with them.

However the time to move on has come, but don’t worry I won’t leave you hanging! Continue reading The Final Week…

Why I No Longer Recommend HostGator

For the past six or so years I’ve recommended HostGator for small sites that shared hosting is designed for.

However in my opinion their customer service and hosting performance has drastically reduced in the past few months. They were purchased by Endurance International Group who own around 50 web hosting and domain related companies. These include JustHost, HostMonster and Bluehost. Continue reading Why I No Longer Recommend HostGator

Can you help me out please?

tash1Almost exactly three years ago I grew a ridiculous moustache/mustache for charity. I was lucky enough to have such generous supporters that I raised about $300.

This year I’ve decided to do it again and need your help once more!

Movember is a worldwide event that essentially sees a lot of men grow a moustache / mustache for the entire month of November – hence Movember.

The event is in aid of prostate cancer, something that has personally affected my family more than once. If you wanted to, I’d be honored if you would sponsor me here. Click on Donate to Me, no amount is too small. Continue reading Can you help me out please?

WordPress Beginner Cheat Sheet

The good folks over at WPUniversity have released a handy cheat sheet for those new to WordPress. It’s a great two page document going through logging in, the settings, and working with Posts and Pages in a simple easy to understand way. If you’re new to working with WordPress or just want a handy reminder, it’s a very useful document.

WPUniversity

Client Spotlight: Pressure Ball

Like a lot of people, Barry Mulder, was frustrated by a problem. Unlike a lot of people he decided to do something about it and invented PressureBall.

Firstly some more about Barry

After working for 25 years in film development for a food packaging manufacturer Barry has gone out on his own to develop some Ideas that he has had for a while .The first is the tennis ball tube (which sells around the world) and he is now finalizing a new concept in very lightweight ride on golf cart/mobility scooter. It’s taken 2 years but the end result will be pretty good. It flips up onto a car towbar like a bike rack. Continue reading Client Spotlight: Pressure Ball

Headway 3.5 Released

As you probably know, my site runs Headway Theme. It’s an awesome drag an drop WordPress theme that has just got even better with their latest 3.5.x release.

I work with many themes for clients, and there are different themes for different circumstances, but Headway has improved once again.

Multiple and Fluid Wrappers

The screenshot below shows a site with three wrappers. These are separate sections of your site which operate independently. Continue reading Headway 3.5 Released

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