This week in the world of WordPress: Jason Schuller, formerly of Press75, talks about his experience as a WordPress theme creator and business owner. Google Analytics and some simple code make it easier to monitor your site’s responsiveness on mobile devices. A tour of WordPress 4.0, why JetPack is getting even cooler, and the rise and fall of the post format. Read on for more…
Press75, Revisited: Jason Schuller’s Perspective on the WP Theme Biz
In just about 6 years, Jason Schuller launched, successfully ran, and sold Press75, one of the first WordPress theme websites. He then branched out to sell his themes on WordPress.com and partnered on and off with several people along the way, all the while making quite a name for himself in the industry (and quite a lot of money, while we’re at it!). Jason got out of the theme business this year when he sold Press75 to WestWerk to focus on new projects. Read why he says passion must be a priority in business, and why he sold a business that was making him upwards of $30-$40k/month here: A Brief History of a WordPress Theme Business
Monitoring Responsiveness via Google Analytics
Responsiveness is not a trend, nor is it a “nice-to-have” on your website wish list. But with this wide range of mobile viewing devices comes a big developer problem: how to test responsivity across the board? Enter WURFL.js and Google Analytics. Simply paste some jQuery into your markup and add some come to your Google tracking code and VOILA! You have another safety in place to be able to track how users are accessing content via mobile devices. You can see where they encounter problems along the way to optimize for browsers of all sorts, not just the breaking points you see on your computer. Read more over at Smashing Mag: Is Your Responsive Design Working? Google Analytics Will Tell You
Maintenance Mode on Live Sites
The Safest Plugins for Handling your WordPress Site During Maintenance looks at some sure-fire, open-source plugin solutions that will put up a road block to your site will in maintenance mode.
Another Value-Add to Automattic (and JetPack!)
BruteProtect has long been a market mainstay in protecting WordPress users from botnet attacks – and now you can get these services FREE through JetPack, a robust WordPress plugin from Automattic. Read about the acquisition at WPTavern: Automattic Acquires Parka LLC, The Creators Of BruteProtect
WordPress 4.0 Release
Daniel Pataki takes us on a tour of what’s new in WordPress 4.0 – including a new, more visual Media Gallery layout, changes to the widget customizer, embed previews for URLs like YouTube, and a remake of the plugin section. Get the scoop here: A Quick Tour Of WordPress 4.0
Successful Blog Content Tips and Tricks
Chris Lema gives some tips on writing successful blog content as he hit 40,000 pageviews a week! Congrats, Chris! The Secret of Writing Helpful Blog Content on a Daily Basis
Post Formats: A Dying Breed?
Brian Krogsgard of PostStat.us talks about his take on post formats – a feature that keeps getting included and excluded in the WordPress core feature set. Read it here: Post formats are slowly dying, and that’s okay
Epicurean Theme