I have moved this post and lots of other WordPress posts over to my new site at <a href="https://wpsteward This Site.com”>https://wpsteward.com, where I will continue publishing helpful tips for website owners going forward.
Still Processing how great WordCamp Raleigh 2015 was for my first time pseudo-organizing and helping out. You can expect a post about that soon. But here’s a bit of a rant that I drafted before the conference.
I see too many DIY WordPress folks trying to do these four things:
So I got my Karma Go, and have been excited to use it when I’m out and about. Just this week the Wifi connection went out at the local YMCA (which I visit but don’t work out at… totally there for the childcare #WorkFromHomeDadProbs) and had it not been for my Karma, I’d have been sitting there smiling at my laptop wishing I could check things off my Todoist.
I don’t think I’m alone among people who understand how data works when I see an image load slowly and think “This is a 4G LTE connection and a slow loading image is a big chunk of data singulair medicine.”
When I’m paying per megabyte, I have no need to see the gif that is all the rage. In fact, I’d prefer if Chrome blocked images, videos, and all other assorted things that I am not actively trying to see, and saved me the money.
Today I discovered a chrome extension that does exactly that. Toggle it on, and all the pages you visit in that window are gloriously image-free.
One click, and Amazon doesn’t load any images. Glorious bandwidth freedom!
That’ll save data for important tasks, and make my Karma’s affordable data last even longer.
Pay as you go data that never expires deserves to be spread across as many months as possible. Sign up for Karma today!
Screams “I like to save money, but I still like nice things,” dontchathink?
I just got a new Retina MacBook Pro last month. The only sticker I put on it (so far) is the Republic Arc due to my love affair with Republic Wireless.
It’s a pretty simple decision, given that they’re the ones who paid for it.
Didn’t think so. ‘Bout time you switched to Republic, banked the difference, and bought yourself a MacBook Pro about 18 months from now, to say thank you for being so thrifty.
PS. You’re darn right those are affiliate links in this post. If you sign up, I get even more money. I’ll use it to put Republic Wireless stickers all over my yacht.
The other day, as I was about to start the math portion of 2nd grade homeschool, I looked out the front door and there was a crane in the front yard.
These are not the type of things that 2nd graders (or their preschool little brothers) miss out on, so we went outside.
Turns out that our landlord had ordered for a tree to be removed, and the local tree removal company had opted for the heavy artillery to dispatch the heavy topiary.
The crane in the yard and in their necks to take it all in. The to-be-removed tree is right behind us.
The astounding thing for me was how fast they took care of the tree, which was a relatively large beast. In fewer than 15 minutes from knocking on my door they had the tree shredded into low-grade mulch in a covered trailer.
As he walked up the driveway once it was all done, the tree man said “Yeah, any time I have to get out the crane, it’s a minimum $2,000 charge, but [your landlord] has a monthly retainer.”
So, let me get this straight: Jimbo McCustomer has large tree in the yard, and you’ll remove it for (say) $1,000 if I opt to go the non-crane route. That’ll involve hours of work to ensure that the tree doesn’t fall on the house, and the workers stay safe. Or if Jimbo has larger budget, you’ll spend 15 minutes to take down the tree with your better equipment.
What an absurd thought. If you have a crane, and the job will go faster with the crane, use the crane.
Don’t charge based on which tool you use, or by how long it’ll take you. Charge by how long it’d take your customer (without your tools or experience) to do it, with an eye toward your competition and what they’d charge/be worth.
It takes you a month. It takes me 30 minutes and mine's better, faster, and more secure #NoHourlyRates Share on XThat goes for us web developers, too. The fact that I can deploy an SSD cloud server with your site on it in 25 minutes doesn’t make it worth any more or less valuable to you than if it took me three days or two weeks. It still would have taken you a month to get the site up—and my site is better, faster, and more secure. Those are the factors I’m going to use to determine my rates.
The speed at which I work doesn’t even enter into the equation, nor do my tools.
Let me be clear: a 25 minute turnaround is extremely valuable to a client. If you want it turned around that fast, you’ll have to pay some major coin. But I’m not going to use a slower or older tool to intentionally slow myself down if you don’t pay my rush fee.
I’m just not going to be in your yard with a crane this afternoon, in that case. It’ll have to be next week.
But when I do show up in your yard, I’ll finish the job fast enough to have your kids still marveling.
Image mercilessly screengrabbed from the WordCamp Raleigh website.
Last year’s experience at WordCamp Raleigh was in many ways a watershed moment for me. I was in the midst of a bunch of developers for the first time, and got a glimpse of what the community really looks like. The one thing I kept thinking was “most of these amazing people live near me!”
Shortly after WordCamp last year, I developed my second WordPress plugin, which took off in ways I was not altogether prepared for. I found myself adding features, writing power user guides, and getting a first-hand look at what it is like to support a product. I even fielded a call from someone looking to acquire my plugin (for not-enough-money, it turns out)!
While I still struggle with imposter syndrome from time to time, I have begun feeling like a real developer this year. My plugin has picked up (and retained) new users at a rate of about 500/month, and I’ve added new clients to monthly backup and maintenance plans.
This year, I’ve leveled-up my WordCamp involvement as well. This past week I met with Steve Mortiboy, one the organizers of WordCamp Raleigh, and he invited me to help as a speaker liaison this year, and in the process also invited me to speak at this year’s conference! I am very excited to talk to my fellow developers about how to get 5-star reviews, and turn support for free products into revenue.
The conference is October 10th and 11th, at the NCSU school of Engineering on the Centennial Campus. The great part about the conference (in addition to the low cost of $35 that includes a t-shirt and lunch on Saturday) is that no matter your tech skill level, there are tracks for you.
*Update* I have now posted a promotional blog post about myself over at the WordCamp site. It was fun promoting myself. Gifs were involved. You can read that here.
