WP Builds Newsletter #2 – Week Commencing 26th February 2018
WP Builds Newsletter #2 - Week Commencing 26th February 2018
Tag WordPress
65 – A wonderfully frank interview with Troy Dean about what makes him tick!
This week we chat to the man who in the world of WordPress needs no introduction... Troy Dean. He's become an important figure in our community and is a great podcast guest who has a lot of great advice. Of course, you'll know about Troy from his very successful projects such as WP Elevation and Rock Star Empires. His courses have inspired many people (me included) to really take a long look at their WordPress businesses and think about how they could become more profitable. He's a great speaker, with that rare ability to speak at great length and be authoritative at the same time.
WP Builds Newsletter #1 – Week Commencing 19th February 2018
WP Builds Newsletter #1 - Week Commencing 19th February 2018
64 – Beaver Funnels is going to make creating funnels so much better with Mike Killen
In this episode we are joined for the second time by Mike Killen who runs Sell Your Service. Last time he was on the WP Builds podcast, he talked about how to create funnels to assist you with your marketing goals. He made the process seem to simple! Well, I think that his experience on the podcast went to his head, because soon after we'd ended the call we started to talk about his new idea - Beaver Funnels. This is his game changing plugin that allows you to leverage the awesomeness of the Beaver Builder Page Builder and use it to create point and click funnels.
63 – What’s new and coming for the Beaver Builder Page Builder with Robby McCullough
So many of you are now using a Page Builder, admit it! Honestly, why wouldn't you, they are such a great way to cut hours of time out of the development process of your WordPress web site. Well, I'm sure that you've heard of Beaver Builder, one of the Page Builders that you really ought to be using. I could go into all the reasons, but suffice to say that it's polished, reliable, and as stable as a thing which holds horses! Recently the guys over at Beaver Builder released version 2.0 into the wild and Robby McCullough is here to explain all about it.
62 – How to make sure that your site is really safe with Akshat Choudhary
Let's be clear, this is a great story about something that we'd all like to happen to us! So you're a developer and you come up with an idea that you decide you should build. You really don't think about whether or not there is a target market and how many potential customers you're going to have, you just build it because you have the ability to do it. Then, one day, more or less by chance you meet a bunch of people who just happen to know other people who have the ability to make your product a success for you. It's the stuff of dreams.
61 – Eric Hamm has built a cool new, self hosted IDE for you
It seems that Eric is one of those people who is always creating new things. I'm not exaggerating when I say that, I really do mean that every couple of months he's trying his hand at something new! Lucky for us, Eric is really rather good at actually delivering new things that are well made and useful, and Instant IDE is no exception. It's new, but is already a pretty robust product, with autocomplete, tree style directory navigation, colour preferences, in fact pretty much all you could want.
60 – How to create great surveys for your clients with Mark Sinclair from SparkChart
Since the dawn of the internet, it was pretty obvious that if you wanted to do anything other than look at "stuff that other people had put there", you were going to need forms. You can submit things to a web site and they can then parse that data, do fun things to it and then present it to you in a different way. So now there are forms everywhere! Mark Sinclair explains why SparkChart is a powerhouse survey tool for you and your clients.
59 – Ben Pines, tell us about the future of the Elementor Page Builder – Part 2
The Elementor folk are thinking about the future and how the product is going to evolve over the coming year. The obvious question is how Elementor is going to align with Gutenberg which is now only a few months away. Are Gutenberg and Elementor in opposition or are they going to work in harmony together? What are the plans to introduce an Elementor Theme Builder, and will it be a new product, or an upgrade to the Pro version of the current product? Also, what’s going on in the longer term?
58 – Ben Pines, tell us about the Elementor Page Builder – Part 1
Well, this is going to be a nice treat for all of you folk that like a Page Builder, especially if that Page builder is called Elementor! Elementor has been growing in popularity during 2017 and has established itself as a solid platform with a reputation for being easy to use with a very generous free version. Ben joins us in Part 1 to tell us about how Elementor got to be where it is today. Who worked on it, how did they decide what to include and what to leave out. Well worth a listen.
57 – Why I built an inline editor for Beaver Builder with Bradley Kirby
In this episode we get to meet Bradley Kirby who has a very cool little plugin for Beaver Builder called Wallace Inline. It's really rather cool, and allows you to update the contents of your Beaver Builder pages without actually using the Beaver Builder dialogue boxes. If you've never used Beaver Builder then you need to know that when you edit content on your page, a little box opens up with all the settings for that 'module'. This plugin changes that and makes editing even more easy!
56 – A great way to think about writing copy with Regina Tuzzolino – Part 2
Last week we introduced you to Regina Tuzzolino and her remarkable approach to writing copy. Well, in this, the second part of the interview, Regina unpacks the ways that this method can be applied to web site copy. It’s such an innovative way to tackle what many of us don’t really like doing. Not only do we not have the required skills, but we’re often more focussed upon the way that a site looks and less upon the impact of the language that we use.
55 – A great way to think about writing copy with Regina Tuzzolino – Part 1
So web copy is hard to do. Some of you might be experts, but most of us are not! We struggle to find a way to make copy that is engaging and innovative; something that people will want to read. Regina has a wonderful take on how to create successful copy through her step-by-step process. It's called the 'Hero's Journey', a 12 step method of breaking down ideas into something meaningful which will resonate well with people.
54 – Why choose WP Engine with Edmund Turbin
In the episode we talk to Edmund Turbin about WP Engine and why you might consider it if you're in the game for a hosting provider. I'm sure that you've heard of WP Engine before, but if you haven't, they're a WordPress specific host who do WordPress and nothing else. They have been experiencing amazing growth since they were founded, and it says a lot about the WordPress ecosystem that services such as this can thrive.
53 – How to get paid more with Brent Weaver – Part 2
Discussion - David and Nathan discuss whether or not it's a good idea to automatically update your plugins.
Interview - How to get paid more with Brent Weaver - Part 2. Last week we were introduced to Brent Weaver from uGurus. We learned about his business and how he aims to assist businesses achieve higher fees and become more profitable. This week is a little different, because we're delving more into Brent (the man) and not Brent (the business man)! Does that make sense?
52 – How to get paid more with Brent Weaver – Part 1
In this episode of the podcast we talk to Brent Weaver from uGurus. He's an exceptionally thoughtful mentor for people who would like to see an upturn in their web design business. uGurus has been going for many years and has helped loads of agencies both big and small to increase their fees. I guess that there is no magic sauce for this kind of thing, but what you'll be gaining is the combined experience of people who have struggled through this problem before.
51 – What’s your design process?
In this episode we talk a lot at the beginning about the fact that we're going to be making some changes to the podcast over the coming weeks. We also talk about what processes we follow when we work. In the light of all the tools that we have available to us these days, what we do / use to get a site from proposal to completion. Now, we're not saying that you should follow what we do, as we know that it's likely hopeless, but we're telling you anyway so that you can tear us down and make us feel inadequate!
50 – Getting more sales with Chris Mason from WooCurve
This week we chat to Chris Mason, the founder of a few plugins which extend WooCommerce. Making sales on the internet can be hard, and it’s made more difficult if the checkout process is not optimised as much as possible. If you run a WooCommerce store then you’ll know that the checkout process, whilst perfectly okay, doesn't really allow you to upsell items. Well, WooCurve aims to make that a reality.
49 – WordPress and where it’s headed with Matt Medeiros
So you’ve heard of Matt Medeiros before, you know that you have. He’s the guy that does The Matt Report, a podcast that delivers great content to business owners who are using WordPress. He’s all over the internet all the time, writing great articles and making useful videos teaching people how to use WordPress. He’s full of energy in a way that most of us could only dream of! Great episode from start to finish!
48 – Ladies and gentlemen, Lee Jackson
In this episode of the WP Builds we talk to the one and only Lee Jackson. If you’ve not heard of Lee before, then, frankly, it’s high time that you did! In fact, if you’ve not heard of Lee, I wonder if you should get your eyes or ears tested, because he’s making so much content it’s like he’s actually part of the internet itself! He makes a great podcast, runs a successful agency, makes lots of video content. I wonder if he sleeps?
47 – Taking online payments, simply, with Phil Derksen from WP Simple Pay
If you’ve been using the internet lately (ha!), you’ll know that people use it to buy and sell things! Wow, amazing! Turns out that taking payments online is a seriously difficult thing to do, difficult that is to write the secure code that will ensure that transactions processed properly. Phil has built a WordPress plugin that allows you to really easily get up and running with Stripe payments.
46 – Being awesome with WordPress without coding with Kim Doyal
Today we have Kim Doyal, aka The WordPress Chick, on the podcast. I don’t think that it’s entirely possible that you’ve not heard of her before if you’ve been in the WordPress space for any length of time! She a powerhouse of energy and enthusiasm and has been pushing put content at a breathtaking rate day after day, year after year. Does she ever sleep, no! Is she great, YES!
45 – Running multiple successful WordPress businesses with Gin McInneny from WP Elevation
Today we talk Gin McInneny, an Aussie who is well worth listening to. I’m sure that you’ll have heard of some of the projects that she’s working on. Gin is a central person in the running of WP Elevation, a community of WordPress professionals; making sure that their WordPress businesses are super effective.
44 – How and why to Podcast by Craig Hewitt from Seriously Simple Podcasting
Today we’ve got Craig Hewitt on from Seriously Simple Podcasting. Now this is something that I can really relate to, and if you have (or have ambitions to have) a podcast, then this is going to be worth listening to. Seriously Simple Podcasting makes podcasting, erm… seriously simple! It’s not a joke it really does. Lovely show!
43 – Running a large Facebook group with Dave Toomey
This week we get to meet the man behind the Beaver Builder Facebook group - Dave Toomey. Many of you will know that there is a 8,000 strong group out there, but perhaps you didn’t know that it was not started by the folk over at Beaver Builder, but by a lone Irish fella called Dave Toomey. Turns out that running a large Facebook group involves quite a bit of work.
42 – Build it out of love. The morality of GPL licenses.
In this episode Nathan and David talk about GPL (General Public License). This is the license that allowed the work that was done webblog tool B2 to be used to make WordPress. It’s the licence that allowed WooCommerce to use the entire code of Jigoshop. What does this mean for those of us who built websites professionally with WordPress? How do premium theme and plugin providers survive?
41 – Andre Gagnon from Project Huddle
In this episode we talk to Andre Gagnon from Project Huddle. Andre has been wrestling with the issue that we all face of trying to gain meaningful comments about static designs and website builds. Often, it’s tricky trying to communicate with clients, but he hopes to solve some of that! It’s worth listening to the very end as he’s a really lovely guy with some great advice!
40 – Puneet Sahalot from the Power Pack addon for Beaver Builder
In today's episode we talk to Puneet Sahalot. He is probably best known as the man behind Power Pack, a Beaver Builder addon pack over at wpbeaveraddons.com. We talk a little bit about what coming up next for PowerPack, but we also talk about two new products, Woo Pack and WP Fomo.
39 – Adam Hempenstall from Better Proposals
In this episode we interview Adam Hempenstall from BetterProposals.io, a company on a mission to make the dull job of writing proposal for your client work as painless as possible. We’ve all been there, you’ve had the client meeting, then you get back to the office to discover that you’ve lost your mojo, because you have to write that proposal and the blank page just kills your will to live! This can help!
38 – How not to talk to WordPress clients
In this weeks episode we discuss the thorny issue of how we communicate with clients; how we communicate our value to clients in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Squarespace and Wix. We talk about the way that we talk to clients and what we do to ensure that they 'get' what it is that we're trying to sell them.
37 – Evaluating WordPress software for website building businesses
We’re always in groups talking about WordPress software, but rarely do we talk about how we evaluate it. That’s what this episode is about. Do we:
Test software for ourselves?
Trust the views of leading influencers?
Follow the majority view?
36 – Marketing Funnels and WordPress with Mike Killen
Whatever I do on the internet these days, I seem to be being followed about by Mike Killen, the guest for this week. I see his face everywhere, posting here, in a sponsored post there, I cannot get away from him. The reason for this is that a) he’s really got an understanding how how to be on my radar with his products and services b) he’s just so damn handsome, so I cannot miss him when he does appear.
35 – Styling your CSS in WordPress with Sebastian Webb from Microthemer
If you’re anything like me you don’t really like styling sites. Well, enter Sebastian web from Microthemer who has a pretty nice way of speeding things up for us all. We’ve all grown accustomed to page builders so why not have a WordPress interface to speed up the process of writing CSS? Microthemer does that!
34 – Why Pods and Beaver Themer are jolly good together, with Bernhard Gronau
Today we are talking about Pods and Beaver Themer with Bernhard Gronau. Where to start? Pod is a free open source plugin available on the WP repository that allows us to easily create Custom Post Types (CPTs) and Custom Fields in WordPress.
33 – Getting content from your client with James Rose
In this episode of the WP Builds podcast we have a slightly different take from the usual WP related content, because this week, we’re talking to James Rose form Content Snare, which has no connection to WordPress at all! However, fear not, all is not lost because this has a great deal to do with your web design and development business.
32 – Tom Usborne from GeneratePress
This is an episode that I really wanted to do. Generate Press is a WordPress theme that I’ve been using for quite a while now, and it’s my theme of choice. The options that it presents are powerful and yet the theme itself if very lightweight. Hooks galore, tasteful defaults, in short a great WordPress theme.
31 – What the heck are WooCommerce doing?
Today we had a carefully considered and mature debate about the removal of the 50% yearly discount on Woocommerce extensions. We also recorded today's podcast which ... erm... is not entirely like that. LISTENER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED. That’s not because we use rude words… Nah, it's simply that no-one can resist a warning and we don't have an interesting guest for you this week.
30 – Jack McConnell from Made with Fuel
Today we have the hugely talented, young and successful Jack McConnell from Made with Fuel on the show.
Made with Fuel is one-man WordPress web design and development agency based in Bath in the UK that focus on Websites, Online Stores and Membership Sites.
He also makes plugins like Better Notifications for WordPress among others. In this episode he shares his experience of that.
29 – Being an online marketing consultant with Jim Galiano
How do we introduce Jim Galiano? Galiano (you need to say that like you’re Robert De Niro), New Yorker accent, grandfather in the boxing business, connections with entertainers. We know what you’re thinking… mafia support... Jim is an online consultant and author who started years ago and has loads to share.
28 – How to stay relevant in WordPress with Eric Hamm
This theme then transitioned into the very popular Dynamik Website Builder (a customizable Child theme for the Genesis Framework) and Genesis Extender (a tool to help customize other Genesis Child theme). "Yeah dude now we're talking... Frameworks are cosmic!". Years of blissful happiness ensued.
27 – The WP community with Paul Lacey
Today we rejoice! We have that nice Paul Lacey with us! We are in the WordPress Community! Let's hold hands and sing and dance around the podcasty campfire... Ah, no, no wait, that's too disturbing! In truth, this episode is about Paul's 10 plus year journey working with WordPress.
26 – Turning your web design business around with Chantal Edouard-Betsy
Chantal, from 1daywebs, turned her website design business away from the tedium long drawn out projects to the heart fluttering thrills of one day web builds. She’s never looked back. D'ya fancy some of that too?
25 – Beaver Themer with Justin Busa and Robby McCullough
Today we welcome back Robby and Justin from Beaver Builder. The last time they joined us was for our Christmas special. This time it just feels like Christmas. If you didn’t know already the Beaver Builder team have just released their Beaver Themer extension.
24 – We have a plugin idea, how do we get customers?
This week we talk to not one, but two lovely developers (Nathan Tyler and Natalie MacLees) from California who have a really interesting take on launching their plugin. Their new plugin, Simply Schedule Appointments is launching BEFORE it’s ready!
23 – The price of using WordPress
Today we talked about the price of using WordPress. No, it's not a long sob story about how the wife and kid left us! Those trailer park days are behind us now!
The topic came out of a Facebook discussion around a plugin release. It got us thinking about our expectations as "professional" builders of websites.
22 – Amir Helzer, CEO of Toolset and WPML
In this episode (drum roll please) we had the great honor of talking to Amir Helzer. Amir is the CEO of OnTheGoSystems known for WP-Types' Toolset, the WPML multilanguage plugin and also ICanLocalize.
Yes, indeed, how did we manage that? More to the point, how did he manage that?
21 – Can we compete with Wix Weebly SquareSpace and Shopify?
We hate to say it, but DIY website building solutions are getting more attractive all the time. They offer an empowering solution to the "I want a website" problem. Are we facing extinction?
20 – What do clients need to know about web software licenses?
My oh my! Software licenses. What a knotty subject that it. It seems we both came to WordPress seeing software primarily as the tools we use to build websites. I mean who asks a plumber what spanner he (sometimes she) uses to fix a boiler? Okay, maybe Nathan might, but that’s not the point!
19 – What do you need to know to offer a full web design service
Today we ask ourselves what skills do we need to offer a full web design service. That sounded like a great topic. It turns out it's a bit slippery this one.Is a webdesigner like a graphic designer for the web or someone who designs business solutions that are realised on the web?
18 – What’s so great about WordCamp?
In what can only be described as a bizarre coincidence today is "World day of making a podcast about WordCamps".
Even more freakily (is that really a word?) we have both just recently attended our first WordCamps. I know, you're right - it’s almost unbelievable!
17 – What should we expect from WP support?
No guests this week. Just Nathan and David. Two guys in their middle youth chatting about stuff we love.
Ok, there maybe little bit of venting, but actually this is quite a nice topic.
Happy “Knowledge Base” day ;-)
16 – Alternative revenue streams for freelancers with Davinder Singh Kainth
Today we talk about multiple income streams with Davinder Singh Kainth. Many will know Davinder from his ProBeaver site, weekly newsletter and tireless support in the Beaver Builder Facebook Group.
15 – How to stop clients ruining your work with Adam Lacey
In this episode we are joined by Adam Lacey from penguinmedia.co.uk. We chat about coping when enthusiastic clients want to exercise their creativity. We ask how much we restrict their role both during and after the website build?
14 – The development of Page Builders with Doug Belchamber
Today we are joined by Doug Belchamber for a chat about the development of page builders. Naturally, we’re huge Beaver Builder fans so this episode is very much inspired by the Alpha release of "Beaver Themer".
13 – Hani Mourra from Simple Podcast Press plugin
In this, episode 13 of the WP Builds podcast, we take a slightly different direction! We have Hani Mourra on, telling us about his experiences building a WordPress plugin in the podcasting space.
12 – Top five tools that we cannot live without
This week David Waumsley and Nathan Wrigley discuss the 5 tools that they could not live without.
This is not supposed to be some sensationalist list that makes you want to go out and buy things! Rather, it’s just the tools that we’ve settled upon after trying out quite a few over the years.
11 – The feast and famine cycle of a web developer
In this episode of the WP Builds podcast Nathan Wrigley and David Waumsley talk about the feast / famine cycle of being a freelancer.
Of course, we don't have the answers, but we we are experimenting with approaches.
10 – Work / Life balance
In this episode of the WP Builds podcast, David Waumsley and Nathan Wrigley discuss the subject of work / life balance.
What time of the day do you start work, and what time do you stop? Perhaps you work around your family commitments, or do the family have to work around you?
9 – Promoting a web design business
In this, episode 9 of the WPBuilds podcast, David Waumsley and Nathan Wrigley discuss the topic of promoting a web design business. Being the non-experts that they both are, they do some of the things that they talk about. Most of the ideas are things that they’ve heard about, but don’t do!
8 – Shiny new toys
David Waumsley and Nathan Wrigley explore the notion of "shiny new things". This is when you buy things that, perhaps, you don't need, just because it is new and you don't have it!
We find out that Nathan is a complete sucker for buying things that he does not need, will not use, and perhaps does not even want.
7 – Web site care plans
In this, the 7th episode of the WP Builds podcast, David Waumsley and Nathan Wrigley discuss web site care plans. We discuss what we both do to create recurring / passive revenue for our web design businesses, what works and what does not.
There's so much to this topic, support requests, backups, security...
6 – The founding fathers of Beaver Builder
Well this is a good episode, we think.
This week, we've got two of the founders of the Beaver Builder plugin for WordPress, Justin Busa and Robby MuCullough on the the show.
5 – How to make money from WordPress
It's episode 5 of the WP Builds podcast, and, honestly, who'd have thought that we'd get this far?
This week we drone on about 'How to make money from WordPress', seeing as we're both fantastically wealthy!!!
4 – Web developers from hell
In episode 4 of the WP Builds podcast, David Waumsley and Nathan Wrigley discuss the role of the web developer and how we can sometimes be a thorn in the side of clients.
We know that dealing with clients can be painful, but what about us? Do we always do the right thing by our clients?
3 – Clients from heaven (not)
In episode 3 of the WPBuilds.com podcast Nathan Wrigley and David Waumsley discuss clients and what it is about them that makes them so great.
We've come up with 13 stereotypical client types and explain more about what we think of them.
2 – Onboarding clients
In episode 2 of the WPBuilds.com podcast Nathan Wrigley and David Waumsley discuss the many ways that WordPress professionals onboard their clients. Simple linear workflows, right through to productising the whole process. There's loads of ways to do it it turns out!
1 – What we like about Beaver Builder Page Builder
In episode 1 of the WPBuilds.com podcast Nathan Wrigley and David Waumsley discuss what it is that makes the Beaver Builder page builder for WordPress so great.
We mention quite a few people from the Beaver Builder Facebook group in here too, so, thanks for all your feedback!