build your website before you install wordpress

Build YourSite Before you INSTALL……

I Apologize To EveryoneI was not in the Navy, But I could have been.

For those you attending the live speaking of this

presentation, Or reading the slideshow version, I have

a tendency to swear in the process. It’s because I am

so passionate about WordPress, and what I do for a

living.

Everything in this Presentation is of my Own

Opinion and I apologize for offending anyone, or

making the assumption that some people are just…..

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP

If there is one point here…It’s this. WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN.

That is the main focus of this presentation!


How the Process WorksThese items will help you explain to the client, some things are not possible.

2of 13

Outline/ Plan

Development

Function Success

There are very simple formulas to every great website. All you need is an idea. That’s the easy part. From building a couponing site to a mirror image of Facebook. That hard part is understanding how everything works. I have four processes that I always complete before I even think about installing WordPress.


Having A Plan of Attack

Its like building a….well… Website.. Or a house!

When a person has an idea for a website, they can see

the website in their head. But do they have it written

down? Having anything written down is a huge step

of the building process. That’s because it also creates

the project syllabus or “Outline”.

If someone were to walk into a developers office and

say “This is what I want, now build it”, a few things

could happen. Well two actually. It’s either going to

be their dream website, or the website works

perfectly, but it’s a website that does not capture

the imagination of the person funding the project.

The second item is usually the outcome, as most

developers know.

After I sit down with the client, I take their idea’s and

write them down on a post it notes and stick them to

a wall. One process to a post it note. Meaning the

home page is note one. From there, the user can

either be logged in or out. Those are 2A and 2B. From

there I start building out the steps each user can

make. When you build the site out on a wall, or a board, you can see the website take some kind of shape. From there, you can fill the gaps that the client might of forgot to include. Or you can correct your mistakes before installing 45 different plugins.

After all the notes are up, I create the projects outline. WAY COOL RIGHT?


3of13

Outline/ Plan

Educate the Client. AlwaysYou do not need to give away your tricks… You just have to inform the client.

Clients tend to see websites on the internet, and want

to duplicate them. Basically they just want to add

their own flare to someone else’s work, calling it

original. As developers, we know that we can just

submit a patch, or create a plugin to modify that site.

We don’t need to rebuild a copy.

Your clients on the other hand, think that this is a

great idea. Not only is their version of Facebook

going to kick major ass, but because the site is

already built, the timeline should be with in a

month.

What clients do not know is that there are probably

1000000’s of lines of code that need to be written to

get the job done.

So when you hand over the project outline to a client,

you need to be sure that you inform them of the

plugins and themes you might be using on this

project, and list their roles / capabilities. Once the

client knows what is possible, they can ask the right

questions.

Of course, some clients are going to ask every question under the sun. But it’s better to be clear on things now, instead of later when they might become super confused.


4of13

Outline/ Plan

Before you pick out some things

Some themes or plugins do some awesome stuff. But what does your site need?

If a client is told that WordPress is the best solution to

their site needs, someone is probably going to tell

them that there are things called Themes and Plugins.

Holy Eff, does this turn into a nightmare.

I personally had a client’s nephew tell me that,

under no circumstances, will the site have this

theme installed or these (15) plugins running on the

site. I asked why. It was because the kid watched a

YOUTUBE video once, explaining that these plugins

slow down the site. Sometimes that is a fair enough

assumption.

It just so happened, that the plugins and theme

mentioned, were literally the exact ones that need to

be used. I found out that the kid tried to build the

site, and was very unsuccessful in producing the

finished site. He was convinced that these plugins

were rubbish. Yes, I said RUBBISH!

I’ll take it a step farther. Since the plugins did not work for him, he wanted this site to not use any plugins at all. Yep, he wanted me to insert Gravity Forms into the theme, and have no plugins running.

My point is this, before you research themes and plugins, have a plan. Then you know what you are looking for. Got it champ? That’s the email I responded back with. True Story.


5of13

Outline/ Plan

You get what you get.

We are specialists but things still need to be built.


6 of 13

Development

Chances are that the nephew went right to

Themeforest, started researching things and hoped

for the best. In reality, if you do not have a plan, how

do you know what sounds right for your project. With

out that plan, they all sound like highly possible

candidates.

There are some themes and plugins that will get the job done for you. Like Gravity forms. Then there are themes and plugins that only accomplish 33-54% of the job. So if you have a plan of attack, you can pick out the right one, the first time.

Let’s not forget the rule

Anything is possible. But the smaller details matter more sometimes.


7 of 13

Development

Clients usually run to you with their idea’s, logos and

color schemes for the site. And that’s great. But in the

beginning, those things do not matter. Let me

explain: Websites need to have that AUTOMATTIC…(see what I did there?) approval from the audience. But more is said about your website from the functionality, than the sex appeal. Nothing goes unseen. Your site might scream AMAZING, but the way people interact with the site whispers SUB PAR, and a whisper is louder than a scream.

Let’s use this in an example. There is this theme, and it does this cool thing. But I’m not sure how it works.

Themeforest is a very popular place for new users to

research themes and plugin candidates for their up

and coming projects. But as developers know,

sometimes the theme turns out to be complete BS!

WooCommerce is a great example of what I am

talking about here. There are many themes on

Themeforest that are using this plugin to

accomplish the over all function of the site. There is

a simple log in and log out feature wrapped in some

jQuery that creates a pop up box. That’s really cool.

But if you are not planning on selling items online,

why are you using the E-Commerce plugin?

Demonstrations, or examples, of WordPress themes

can be misleading. We have no idea if the home page

is being populated by post types, or manually

entering in the information inside a page template.

Clients tend to choose things off looks, and not

function.

So now the client is basing their website off of the capabilities of their themes or plugins they have chosen. While this is not a 100% horrible idea, there is a current trend going around with new users. They want a Brochure website, while using a Magazine theme and E-Commerce Plugins. WHY?Because they were mislead by something, somewhere.


8of13

Outline/ Plan

I call this move….Whiskey Di-K.

Can some one say….. EPIC FAILURE? SHIT, I’ll SAY IT. I’ll SAY IT LOUDER!!


9of 13

Function

Many times, when I am building a clients site or

providing support, I’ll start seeing patterns in their

flaws. Man do I enjoy telling people how wrong they

are. Seriously. Think about this for a minute. New websites are so much easier to build vs. already existing sites that were built on WP 2.3 and using plugins that have never been updated. There are some amazing plugins that are being built right now as we speak. Memberships plugins come to mind here. S2 Member was the Holy Grail when it came to Membership Plugins. It was the only option at one point. While it is an amazing plugin, there are more efficient plugins out there that will allow you to do more. So it’s important to pick themes and plugins that are going to be compatible. Like Gravity Forms and Jet Pack. Let them do the heavy lifting.

Functions Rule In Our WorldWhen someone does this…. I want that to happen.


10of 13

Function

So you have a client, and their grand idea is all about

making something work more efficiently. That’s

awesome by the way. But they have little to no clue on

how they are to get it from step one to step 329.

You might be able to re-write a function, or change some css really easy. But sometimes clients lack the vocabulary, or terms we use, so they really meant to say register form instead of sign up to my newsletter form. It’s important to know what needs to happen when buttons are clicked. That’s why we have post it notes on the wall. They explain the story of how things are going to work.

Functioning is as functioning does.Some ideas are so amazing, that they have not been thought up. SARCASM HERE

11 of 13

Function

Getting back to the post it notes on the wall Idea. Lets

think about the process in general. How do we get

from A to Z? 1 to 329? Well there are steps involved.

These steps might need to be worked out several

times before something else can be done. Even then,

we might need to go back for corrections

That’s why I put everything on the wall. I can break things down to the client. I can show them what might take some time vs. using a plugin like Gravity Forms to handle the task. Depending on their requests, and stuborness, sometimes the best plugins are scrapped because they do not like the LOOK of something. My theory is that: If it functions, style can be corrected.


What is Really Happening. What are the main components of the site.

12 of 13

WordPress 1

Theme 2

Plugins 3

U I 4


Accomplishing your clients dreams

It’s harder than it seems. That’s what she said. SARCASM HERE

13 of 13

Success

Now that you know that writing everything down is

so important, you can start using this process in your

own designs or company. Success is measured

differently by each individual. On a serious note, this

is a fact.

All of your clients who are building their first website have the priorities out of whack. The things that are important to them, are not important to you. When you educate the client, they can see how you do work and adapt. Maybe it’s your creative genius that will help them improve the outcome of their project.


Part TWOClient, Developer Relations….

Tools I Use Every Freaking Day

I can have my own separate account, but I can share information with clients.

1of 5

ASANA TRACKY BASE CAMP

WordPress

It’s very important to break things down, or separate things from others. At the same time, it totally sucks having to remember what site I need to visit to update something as simple as a milestone or project details. So I have some awesome tools to share with everyone. These all offer some great features.


Asana is the Awful Awful.Well worth the money, This app keeps me focused.

Asana is a Web Based Application that handles more than just task management. From simple to-do lists to complex projects, Asana is one tool for many purposes. What’s more, you can adapt your own workflow to Asana. Until now, I was truly lost.

I use Asana to keep all of my employees inline, and

informed. With this app, I can keep track of my

whole team. Each team member can only see what I

have assigned to them, or what they have added.

Each member can write something up, and share it

with who ever. This is great because it keeps a

detailed log of all dialogs we have. Members can

check their work online, or via mobile device. That

really came in handy for us, since we are all living

in different cities.

It’s important for me to inform you that I only use

Asana with my team members. This is how we

communicate daily. This way, we can keep our own

notes on a separate service, off our server. Talk about

saving some space. Plus, its so UI friendly, why would

we use anything else.

I used to think that I had to do everything inside of one platform, or what was the point of paying for multiple things? I love WordPress, but even multisite networks can become complicated and stressed on band width.


2of5

Tracky. Enough said.

A Las Vegas Startup, That is saving time, everywhere.

Tracky is an online enterprise social collaboration platform that encompasses to-do lists, live chat, calendars, task management, people and project discovery, social accountability, cloud-based storage and more.

I use Tracky for several things. Mostly because they

are super involved with every single person and

company that uses their platform. They have

numerous integrations with WordPress and provide

code for you to use if you are using any kind of

programming language. The coolest part about

Tracky for me personally is the simple fact, that

anytime I need help, their staff is online and ready

to help. Talk about a cool Las Vegas Start Up.

Tracky allows us to keep a journal of projects we are

currently working on, and share them with Social

Networks. So Most of our Press Releases are done

using a Track on Tracky. We also use Tracky with out

Meet Up Groups and Developer groups we

communicate with. I have met some awesome

developers, just by adding them on Tracky. It’s totally free, a start up ran by the same people since day one, and taking over social collaboration day by day. The team members can even Skype with us if we need help using their system, or even just to bounce some idea’s off of. We do have to schedule that time with them though.


2of5

Base Camp, You’re Drunk.

There will always be love for the original.

Everyone uses Base Camp, or has used Base Camp if

they have decided to get serious about project

management. This tool is a really amazing starting

point, if you need something affordable (Cheap), and

easy to use after reading instructions.

There are so many apps, and plugins for Base

Camp, it’s not even funny. Since it is one of the most

popular project management tools out there, many

developers build apps off of their API tools. Bonfire,

is a Campfire application for Android that doesn't

suck.

How many people have heard of CLOUD SNAP? Yeah,

a lot of people here in RENO know COLIN LORETZ,

the CEO AND FOUNDER. His software is super

compatible with Basecamp, Sales Force and even

EVERNOTE. So While Base Camp is very basic to

most developers, It’s truly impressive.


3of 5

WP Project Management UnlimitedSimply, the Best We’ve Seen.

GeekStreetWP.com is the service that I founded in

October 2012. It doubles as a Support Service for

new and advanced users who own a WordPress site,

and as a design shop that can help you create

something new for your site.

We have two very ways we handle business. One

side is the Support. We use a theme from

WooThemes called Support Press. It allows us to

create a knowledge base, while letting clients

create support tickets to get the help that they

need.

Now when we have clients who use our services for

Design only, we create a subdomain for that client

on our multisite network, we use the Support Press

theme, and we use WP Project Management

Unlimited.

When we build out a site for a client, they get their

own support subdomain where they can view their

own knowledgebase articles that we specifically write

for them. They can create tickets as well. With the

Projects Plugin, we also keep a communication going

with the clients on a custom post type called Projects.

Here, we can assign specific users to a project. They

can see the outline of the project, as well as comment

and upload files as they like.

The only way this plugin gets any better, is if it had

some kind of invoicing options. But that’s what other

plugins are for.


4of 5

In Conclusion, or THE END!

Remember what the point of this presentation was?

Writing information down is super awesome. It helps

all parties involved, keeps a proper timeline and logs

all of the communications between users and

developers alike.

We write everything down on post it notes. Then we

stick them to the wall in order of how the site will

work. Then we create the outline. We begin

development and install the functionality of the site.

From there, our team stays in contact with each

other, and our clients using some really cool apps,

software and plugins.

I really hoped that you enjoyed the presentation.

Building your site before you install WordPress is

more than likely not for everyone. But I hope that it

helps at least some developers and clients understand

that figuring out what your site will do on paper is far

more important that wasting time installing plugins

and themes, and ripping them down Screaming “I

HATE YOU…..” really loudly from a roof top that you

want to jump off.


5of 5

ANY QUESTIONS?Now is the F*CKING TIME, As Lucy LU says in Kill Bill Vol. 1

Come On Down, You’re the next contestant on the

Price Is Right.

URL: GEEKSTREETWP.COM

Email: [email protected]


THANKS FOR WATCHING

SEACREST, OUT!

build your website before you install wordpress

Self Improvement

couponing site

finished site

bysbyiwpgeek street

plugins slow

different plugins

great website

clients nephew

project outline