WordPress Mistakes I’ve Made13
Laura Eagin | WordCamp North CantonMay 4th 2013
I’m Laura Eagin
•Detroit Michigan
•Custom Theme Developer
•Volunteer and teach @ Girl Develop It
•Tweet @choolaura
• lauraeagin.com
What We’ll Cover
•Tips to go from Beginner to Intermediate
•Tips for site administrators and themers
•Custom Theme Development = a lot of CSS
•Get to know WordPress really well
•Sayyes,andfigureitoutasyougo
Fail Harder, Weiden + Kennedy, by Jerry Helm studiojelly.com
Jumped to the fun part too soon.1
I like to theme it, theme it.
First I Should Have:
•Set permalinks
•Changed blog tagline
•Get rid of default posts, categories, links
I rushed when uploading media.2
Input data in all of the fieldsmarkedred.
I dated bad plugins3
Bachelor #1
Bachelor #2
Bachelor #3
Few ratings
Hasn’t been updated
No documentation
Right name, wrong tool
Widget vs. Plugin
Slows down site
Warnings pop up
Breaks my site
Levels of Plugin Hell
Plugin Support is your friend, look at it.
I was cheap4
Gravity Forms cured me of my cheapness. It’s worth it.
Don’t Forget to Get Client on Board
• Include price of plugins in contract
•Annual cost vs. one-time cost
•Or, roll cost into your maintenance fee
If this is your own site, think about the value of the plugin overtime. Consider upgrading to Developer version so you can use on your site and others.
I edited code in the appearances editor5
Oh snap!
Highlighted Syntax with Sublime Text 2
Much better!
Version ControlBitbucketGitHub
Work LocallyMAMPWAMP
I didn’t use the theme folder6
wp-content /themes/mytheme/images
I pretended to be a system admin7
Just say no.Refer them to an expert
Consider managed hosting providers ($)
Open support tickets early and often
One Click Install Is Your Friend
I didn’t set up a staging/dev site8
Without a staging site
With a staging site
I forgot about those robots9
When you are not ready to launch your site, discourage search engines from indexing it.
Then, don’t forget to uncheck this setting when you do launch the site. It’s easy to forget.
Plugin “Under Construction” sets up a nice splash page to prevent anyone seeing the site while you’re working on it.
Plugin “Under Construction” even allows you to use your own HTML as a splash page.
I didn’t track trafficfromday110
I didn’t hold their hand.11
Tutorials and ResourcesFor your clients, because it’s their site after you launch it.
Wordpress.org “Getting Started with WP”
WordPress.tv
Meetup.com
Bonus: isitwp.com
Manage User Access
- Members Plugin- Role Scoper Plugin
Hand holding (It’s necessary!)
+ Make it easy for them to log in
+Walkthemthroughitfirst,secondtime
I assumed client would write.12
Contentisdifficulttoget(oy!)
While the Theme is being designed & built, the writing should also be happening.
This is a forever a struggle for me with client sites... Any solutions?
Thank you!
... but wait, there’s more.
@choolaura
I didn’t get to know all of you.13
Community is so important. You’re at WordCamp... So don’t leave this room without meeting at least one new person!