Chapter 4: Meeting the WordPress Community
In This Chapter
Finding WordPress users
Locating users on social networks
Noticing members helping members in support forums
Participating in testing and bug squashing
Discovering professional consultants and services
Attending and organizing local WordCamps
Allow me to introduce you to the fiercely loyal folks who make up the WordPress user base, better known as the WordPress community. These merry ladies and gentlemen come from all around the globe, from California to Cairo, Florida to Florence, and all points in between.
In March 2005, Matt Mullenweg of WordPress proudly proclaimed that the number of WordPress downloads had reached 900,000 — an amazing landmark in the history of the software. By August 2006, WordPress had logged more than 1 million downloads, and by 2007, more than 3 million. The number of downloads of WordPress continues to grow with each passing day. 2010 was a landmark year for WordPress when Microsoft announced that it would be transferring their 30-million+ users of its Windows Live service to WordPress. In 2011, a popular technology blog, TechCrunch, announced that WordPress powers 22 percent of all newly active websites in the United States (http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/wordpress-now-powers-22-percent-of-new-active-websites-in-the-us). This popularity makes for a large community of users, to say the least.
This chapter introduces you to the WordPress community and the benefits of membership within that community, such as where to find support, how to locate other WordPress users on various social networks, getting support and assistance from other users, how you can participate in WordPress development, and hooking up with WordPress users face to face at WordPress events, such as WordCamp.
Finding Other WordPress Users
Don’t let the sheer volume of users intimidate you: WordPress has bragging rights to the most helpful blogging community on the web today. Thousands of websites exist that spotlight everything, including WordPress news, resources, updates, tutorials, training — the list is endless. Do a quick Google search for WordPress and you’ll get about 1.9 billion results.
My point is that WordPress users are all over the Internet, from websites to discussion forums and social networks to podcasts, and more. For many people, the appeal of the WordPress platform lies not only in the platform itself, but in its passionate community of users.
Finding WordPress news and tips on community websites
WordPress-related websites cover an array of topics related to the platform, including everything from tutorials to news, and even a little gossip, if that’s your flavor. The Internet has no shortage of websites related to the popular WordPress platform; here are a few that stand out:
WP Candy (http://wpcandy.com): Covers everything from soup to nuts: news, resources, tools, tutorials, and interviews with standout WordPress personalities. You can pretty much count on WP Candy to be on top of what's new and going on in the WordPress community. WP Candy also hosts a popular weekly WordPress podcast called WP Late Night.
Smashing Magazine (http://wp.smashingmagazine.com): This very popular and established online design magazine and resource has dedicated a special section of its website just to WordPress news, resources, tips, and tools written by various members of the WordPress community.
Code Poet (http://build.codepoet.com): A resource website the team at Automattic created to help anyone who builds websites with WordPress. It includes e-books, articles, and interviews with WordPress community members who are doing great things with the software.
Make WordPress.org (http://make.wordpress.org): A website that aggregates content from all of the "Make WordPress" websites built and maintained by the Wordpress.org community. It includes resources for everything from contributing to WordPress core, making plugins and themes, planning WordPress events, supporting WordPress, and more.
Locating users on social networks
In addition to WordPress, many bloggers use different microblogging tools, such as Twitter (http://twitter.com), and/or social-media networks, such as Facebook (www.facebook.com), to augment their online presence and market their blog, services, and products. Within these different networks, you can find WordPress users, resources, and links, including the following:
WordPress Twitter Lists: Twitter allows users to create lists of people and their tweets who have the same interests, such as WordPress. You can find a few of these lists here:
• Wefollow WordPress: http://wefollow.com/twitter/wordpress
• Listorious WordPress People and Lists: http://listorious.com/tags/wordpress
Facebook Pages on WordPress: Facebook users create pages and groups around their favorite topics of interest, such as WordPress. You can find some interesting WordPress pages and groups here:
• WordPress.org Fan Page: www.facebook.com/WordPress
• WordPress For Dummies Fan Page: www.facebook.com/pages/WordPress-For-Dummies/47542644546
• Matt Mullenweg on Facebook (Founder of WordPress): www.facebook.com/matt.mullenweg
You can also include Twitter Lists on your site by using the handy Twitter Lists for WordPress plugin at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-lists-for-wordpress.
Users Helping Users
Don’t worry if you’re not a member of the WordPress community. Joining is easy: Simply start your own blog by using the WordPress platform. If you’re already blogging on a different platform, such as Blogger or Movable Type, WordPress makes migrating your data from that platform to a new WordPress setup simple. (See Book II, Chapter 7 for information on migrating to WordPress from a different platform.)
WordPress support forums
The WordPress Forums page (shown in Figure 4-1) can be found at http://wordpress.org/support. This is where you find users helping other users in their quest to use and understand the platform.
The support forums are hosted on the WordPress.org website; however, don’t expect to find any official form of support from the WordPress developers. Instead, you find a large community of people from all walks of life seeking answers and providing solutions.
Figure 4-1: WordPress Forums page.
Users from beginner and novice level to the most advanced level browse the forums, providing support for one another. Each user has their own experiences, troubles, and knowledge level with WordPress, and the support forums are where they share those experiences and seek out the experiences of other users.
It is important to remember that the people you find and interact with on these official forums are offering their knowledge on a volunteer basis only — so, as always, common courtesy rules apply. Using “please” and “thank you” go a long, long way in the forums.
If you find solutions and assistance in the WordPress support forums, consider browsing through the forum entries to see whether you can help someone else by answering a question or two.
WordPress user manual
You can also find users contributing to the very helpful WordPress Codex (a collection of how-to documents) at http://codex.wordpress.org. Codex, by the way, is Latin for book.
The WordPress Codex is a collaborative effort to document the use of the WordPress software. All contributors to the Codex are WordPress users who donate their time as a way of giving back to the free, open source project that has given them a dynamic piece of software for publishing freely on the web.
WordPress mailing lists
You can subscribe to various mailing lists, too. These lists offer you the opportunity to become involved in various aspects of the WordPress community as well as future development of the software. All the available WordPress mailing lists are on the Automattic website at http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo. The most popular ones include
wp-hackers (http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers): Subscribe to this mailing list to interact and talk to other WordPress users about hacking WordPress — otherwise known as altering WordPress code to make it do what you want it to do.
wp-testers (http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-testers): This mailing list is filled with people who are testing new releases (as well as beta versions) of WordPress and reporting any bugs or problems that they find.
wp-edu (http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-edu): This is a mailing list dedicated to people in the education field who use WordPress, such as teachers and professors.
Discovering Professional WordPress Consultants and Services
You have big plans for your blog, and your time is valuable. Hiring a professional to handle the back-end design and maintenance of your blog enables you to spend your time creating the content and building your readership on the front end.
Many bloggers who decide to go the custom route by hiring a design professional do it for another reason: They want the designs/themes of their blogs to be unique. Free themes are nice, but you run the risk that your blog will look like hundreds of other blogs out there.
A brand, a term often used in advertising and marketing, refers to the recognizable identity of a product — in this case, your blog. Having a unique brand or design for your site sets yours apart from the rest. If your blog has a custom look, people will associate that look with you. You can accomplish branding with a single logo or an entire layout and color scheme of your choosing.
Many consultants and design professionals put themselves up for hire. Who are these people? I get to that topic in just a second. First, you want to understand what services they offer, which can help you decide whether hiring a professional is the solution for you.
Here are some of the many services available:
Custom graphic design and CSS styling for your blog
Custom templates
WordPress plugin installation and integration
Custom WordPress plugins
WordPress software installation on your web server
Upgrades of the WordPress software
Web hosting and domain registration services
Search engine optimization and site marketing
Some bloggers take advantage of the full array of services provided, whereas others use only a handful. The important thing to remember is that you aren’t alone. Help is available for you and your blog.
Table 4-1 pairs the three types of blog experts — designers, developers, and consultants — with the services they typically offer.
Many of these folks are freelancers with self-imposed titles, but I’ve matched titles to typical duties. Keep in mind that some of these professionals wear all these hats; others specialize in only one area.
Table 4-1 Types of WordPress Professionals
|
Title |
Services |
|
Designers |
These folks excel in graphic design, CSS, and the development of custom WordPress themes. |
|
Developers |
These guys and gals are code monkeys. Some of them don’t know a stitch about design; however, they can provide you custom code to make your blog do things you never thought possible. Usually, you’ll find these people releasing plugins in their spare time for the WordPress community to use free. |
|
Consultants |
If you’re blogging for a business, these folks can provide you a marketing plan for your blog or a plan for using your blog to reach clients and colleagues in your field. Many of these consultants also provide search engine optimization to help your domain reach high ranks in search engines. |
I wish I could tell you what you could expect to pay for any of these services, but the truth is the levels of expertise — and expense — vary wildly. Services can range from $5 per hour to $300 or more per hour. As with any purchase, do your research and make an informed decision before you buy.
Listing all the professionals who provide WordPress services is impossible, but Tables 4-2 through 4-4 list some of the more popular ones. I tried to cover a diverse level of services so that you have the knowledge to make an informed decision about which professional to choose.
WordPress designers
WordPress designers can take a simple blog and turn it into something dynamic, beautiful, and exciting. These people are experts in the graphic design, CSS styling, and template tagging needed to create a unique theme for your website. Often, WordPress designers are skilled in installing and upgrading WordPress software and plugins; sometimes, they’re even skilled in creating custom PHP or plugins. These folks are the ones you want to contact when you’re looking for someone to create a unique design for your website that is an individual, visual extension of you or your company, such as my own premium WordPress theme business shown in Figure 4-2.
Figure 4-2: The design of E.Webscapes premium WordPress themes site.
Some blog designers post their rates on their websites because they offer design packages, whereas other designers quote projects on a case-by-case basis because every project is unique. When you’re searching for a designer, if the prices aren’t displayed on the site, just drop the designer an e-mail and ask for an estimate. Armed with this information, you can do a little comparison shopping while you search for just the right designer.
The designers and design studios listed in Table 4-2 represent a range of styles, pricing, services, and experience. All of them excel in creating custom WordPress blogs and websites. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a nice starting point.
Table 4-2 Established WordPress Designers
|
Who They Are |
Where You Can Find Them |
|
WebDevStudios |
|
|
10up |
|
|
Range |
Developers
The WordPress motto sits at the bottom of the WordPress home page:
Code is poetry.
No one knows this better than the extremely talented blog developers in the core WordPress development team. A developer can take some of the underlying code, make a little magic happen between PHP and the MySQL database that stores the content of your blog, and create a dynamic display of that content for you. Most likely, you’ll contact a developer when you want to do something with your blog that’s a little out of the ordinary and you can’t find a plugin that does the trick.
If you’ve gone through all the available WordPress plugins and still can’t find the exact function that you want your WordPress blog to perform, contact one of these folks. Explain what you need. The developer can tell you whether it can be done, whether she is available to do it, and how much it will cost. (Don’t forget that last part!) You may recognize some of the names in Table 4-3 as developers/authors of some popular WordPress plugins.
Table 4-3 Established WordPress Developers
|
Who They Are |
Where You Can Find Them |
|
Crowd Favorite |
|
|
eHermits, Inc. |
|
|
Covered Web Services — Mark Jaquith |
|
|
Voce Communications |
Consultants
Blog consultants may not be able to design or code for you, but they’re probably connected to people who can. Consultants can help you achieve your goals for your blog in terms of online visibility, marketing plans, and search engine optimization. Most of these folks can help you find out how to make money with your blog and connect you with various advertising programs. Quite honestly, you can do what blog consultants do by investing just a little time and research in these areas. As with design and coding, however, figuring everything out and then implementing it takes time. Sometimes it’s easier — and more cost effective — to hire a professional rather than do it yourself.
Who hires blog consultants? Typically, a business that wants to incorporate a blog into its existing website or a business that already has a blog but wants help taking it to the next level. Table 4-4 lists some people and organizations that offer this kind of consulting.
Table 4-4 Established Blog Consultants
|
Who They Are |
Where You Can Find Them |
Type of Consulting |
|
Copyblogger Media |
SEO, Marketing |
|
|
Convertiv — Kevin Palmer |
WordPress Design and Development; Social Media Consulting |
|
|
WebDesign.com |
WordPress Training |
Contributing to WordPress
Contributing code to the core WordPress software is only one way of participating in the WordPress project. You do not need to be a coder or developer to contribute to WordPress — and it’s easier than you might think. Here are several ways you can contribute to the project, including, but not limited to, code:
Code: One of the more obvious ways you can contribute to WordPress is by providing code to be used in the core files. The WordPress project has several hundred developers who contribute code at one time or another. You submit code through the WordPress Trac at http://core.trac.wordpress.org. Within the Trac, you can follow current development and track changes. To contribute, you can use the Trac to download and test a code patch or look at reported bugs to see whether you can offer a fix or submit a patch. Required skills include, at the very least, PHP programming, WordPress experience, and MySQL database administration. (That isn't an exhaustive list, mind you.)
Testing: You can join the wp-testers mailing list to test beta versions of WordPress and report your own user experience. WordPress developers monitor this mailing list and try to fix any true bugs or problems.
Documentation: Anyone can submit documentation to the Codex (the user documentation for WordPress); all you need to do is visit http://codex.wordpress.org, create an account, and dig in! Be sure to check out the article in the Codex titled "Codex: Contributing" (http://codex.wordpress.org/Codex:Contributing), which provides good tips on how to get started, including guidelines for documentation contributions.
Tutorials: Do you feel like you have a few tips and tricks you want to share with other WordPress users? Take it to your blog! What better way to contribute to WordPress than sharing your knowledge with the rest of the world? Write up your how-to tutorial and publish it on your website — then promote your tutorial on Twitter and Facebook.
Support Forums: Volunteer your time and knowledge on the WordPress support forums at http://wordpress.org/support. The involvement of WordPress users donating their time and talents in the support forum is an essential part of the WordPress experience.
Presentations: In the next section of this chapter, I discuss live WordPress events where users meet face to face. Consider offering to speak at one of those events to share your knowledge and experience with other users — or host one in your local area.
Participating in Live WordPress Events
Not only can you find out about WordPress and contribute to the project online via the Internet, but you can get involved in WordPress offline, too. Live WordPress events, called WordPress Meetups and WordCamps, are where users and fans get together to discuss, learn, and share about their favorite platform. The two events are somewhat different:
WordPress Meetups: Generally, these local WordPress events occur in small groups of people from the same geographical location. Typically, speakers, organizers, and attendees are from the same area and enjoy gathering on a monthly or bimonthly basis.
You can find a WordPress Meetup near your community by visiting the Meetup website at www.meetup.com or by performing a search, using the keyword WordPress and your city or zip code.
WordCamps: These annual WordPress events are usually much larger than Meetups and are attended by people from all over the country. WordCamps are hosted in almost every major city in the United States and abroad. Usually, WordCamps cost a small amount to attend, and speakers at WordCamps are well-known personalities from the WordPress community.
You can find a WordCamp event close to you by visiting the WordCamp website at http://central.wordcamp.org and browsing through the upcoming WordCamps.
If there is not a Meetup or WordCamp near your area, consider getting involved and organizing one! Some great tips and information about organizing WordCamps can be found at http://central.wordcamp.org.