Build your website before you install wordpress.
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The document provides guidance on planning a website build before installing WordPress. It emphasizes the importance of having a plan, outlining each page and how they will function before beginning development. It warns against relying solely on themes and plugins without understanding what functionality is actually needed for the site. The document stresses educating clients on limitations and setting appropriate expectations for timelines.
Build your website before you install wordpress.
- 1. Build Your Site Before you INSTALL……
- 2. I Apologize To Everyone I was not in the Navy, But I could have been. For those you attending the live speaking of this presentation, Or reading the slideshow version, I have a tendency to swear in the process. It’s because I am so passionate about WordPress, and what I do for a living. Everything in this Presentation is of my Own Opinion and I apologize for offending anyone, or making the assumption that some people are just….. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP
- 3. If there is one point here… It’s this. WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. That is the main focus of this presentation! BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP
- 4. How the Process Works These items will help you explain to the client, some things are not possible. 2 of 13 Outline / Plan Development Function Success There are very simple formulas to every great website. All you need is an idea. That’s the easy part. From building a couponing site to a mirror image of Facebook. That hard part is understanding how everything works. I have four processes that I always complete before I even think about installing WordPress. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP
- 5. Having A Plan of Attack Its like building a….well… Website.. Or a house! When a person has an idea for a website, they can see the website in their head. But do they have it written down? Having anything written down is a huge step of the building process. That’s because it also creates the project syllabus or “Outline”. If someone were to walk into a developers office and say “This is what I want, now build it”, a few things could happen. Well two actually. It’s either going to be their dream website, or the website works perfectly, but it’s a website that does not capture the imagination of the person funding the project. The second item is usually the outcome, as most developers know. After I sit down with the client, I take their idea’s and write them down on a post it notes and stick them to a wall. One process to a post it note. Meaning the home page is note one. From there, the user can either be logged in or out. Those are 2A and 2B. From there I start building out the steps each user can make. When you build the site out on a wall, or a board, you can see the website take some kind of shape. From there, you can fill the gaps that the client might of forgot to include. Or you can correct your mistakes before installing 45 different plugins. After all the notes are up, I create the projects outline. WAY COOL RIGHT? BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 3 of13 Outline / Plan
- 6. Educate the Client. Always You do not need to give away your tricks… You just have to inform the client. Clients tend to see websites on the internet, and want to duplicate them. Basically they just want to add their own flare to someone else’s work, calling it original. As developers, we know that we can just submit a patch, or create a plugin to modify that site. We don’t need to rebuild a copy. Your clients on the other hand, think that this is a great idea. Not only is their version of Facebook going to kick major ass, but because the site is already built, the timeline should be with in a month. What clients do not know is that there are probably 1000000’s of lines of code that need to be written to get the job done. So when you hand over the project outline to a client, you need to be sure that you inform them of the plugins and themes you might be using on this project, and list their roles / capabilities. Once the client knows what is possible, they can ask the right questions. Of course, some clients are going to ask every question under the sun. But it’s better to be clear on things now, instead of later when they might become super confused. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 4 of13 Outline / Plan
- 7. Before you pick out some things Some themes or plugins do some awesome stuff. But what does your site need? If a client is told that WordPress is the best solution to their site needs, someone is probably going to tell them that there are things called Themes and Plugins. Holy Eff, does this turn into a nightmare. I personally had a client’s nephew tell me that, under no circumstances, will the site have this theme installed or these (15) plugins running on the site. I asked why. It was because the kid watched a YOUTUBE video once, explaining that these plugins slow down the site. Sometimes that is a fair enough assumption. It just so happened, that the plugins and theme mentioned, were literally the exact ones that need to be used. I found out that the kid tried to build the site, and was very unsuccessful in producing the finished site. He was convinced that these plugins were rubbish. Yes, I said RUBBISH! I’ll take it a step farther. Since the plugins did not work for him, he wanted this site to not use any plugins at all. Yep, he wanted me to insert Gravity Forms into the theme, and have no plugins running. My point is this, before you research themes and plugins, have a plan. Then you know what you are looking for. Got it champ? That’s the email I responded back with. True Story. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 5 of13 Outline / Plan
- 8. You get what you get. We are specialists but things still need to be built. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 6 of 13 Development Chances are that the nephew went right to Themeforest, started researching things and hoped for the best. In reality, if you do not have a plan, how do you know what sounds right for your project. With out that plan, they all sound like highly possible candidates. There are some themes and plugins that will get the job done for you. Like Gravity forms. Then there are themes and plugins that only accomplish 33-54% of the job. So if you have a plan of attack, you can pick out the right one, the first time.
- 9. Let’s not forget the rule Anything is possible. But the smaller details matter more sometimes. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 7 of 13 Development Clients usually run to you with their idea’s, logos and color schemes for the site. And that’s great. But in the beginning, those things do not matter. Let me explain: Websites need to have that AUTOMATTIC…(see what I did there?) approval from the audience. But more is said about your website from the functionality, than the sex appeal. Nothing goes unseen. Your site might scream AMAZING, but the way people interact with the site whispers SUB PAR, and a whisper is louder than a scream.
- 10. Let’s use this in an example. There is this theme, and it does this cool thing. But I’m not sure how it works. Themeforest is a very popular place for new users to research themes and plugin candidates for their up and coming projects. But as developers know, sometimes the theme turns out to be complete BS! WooCommerce is a great example of what I am talking about here. There are many themes on Themeforest that are using this plugin to accomplish the over all function of the site. There is a simple log in and log out feature wrapped in some jQuery that creates a pop up box. That’s really cool. But if you are not planning on selling items online, why are you using the E-Commerce plugin? Demonstrations, or examples, of WordPress themes can be misleading. We have no idea if the home page is being populated by post types, or manually entering in the information inside a page template. Clients tend to choose things off looks, and not function. So now the client is basing their website off of the capabilities of their themes or plugins they have chosen. While this is not a 100% horrible idea, there is a current trend going around with new users. They want a Brochure website, while using a Magazine theme and E-Commerce Plugins. WHY? Because they were mislead by something, somewhere. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 8 of13 Outline / Plan
- 11. I call this move…. Whiskey Di-K. Can some one say….. EPIC FAILURE? SHIT, I’ll SAY IT. I’ll SAY IT LOUDER!! BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 9of 13 Function Many times, when I am building a clients site or providing support, I’ll start seeing patterns in their flaws. Man do I enjoy telling people how wrong they are. Seriously. Think about this for a minute. New websites are so much easier to build vs. already existing sites that were built on WP 2.3 and using plugins that have never been updated. There are some amazing plugins that are being built right now as we speak. Memberships plugins come to mind here. S2 Member was the Holy Grail when it came to Membership Plugins. It was the only option at one point. While it is an amazing plugin, there are more efficient plugins out there that will allow you to do more. So it’s important to pick themes and plugins that are going to be compatible. Like Gravity Forms and Jet Pack. Let them do the heavy lifting.
- 12. Functions Rule In Our World When someone does this…. I want that to happen. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 10 of 13 Function So you have a client, and their grand idea is all about making something work more efficiently. That’s awesome by the way. But they have little to no clue on how they are to get it from step one to step 329. You might be able to re-write a function, or change some css really easy. But sometimes clients lack the vocabulary, or terms we use, so they really meant to say register form instead of sign up to my newsletter form. It’s important to know what needs to happen when buttons are clicked. That’s why we have post it notes on the wall. They explain the story of how things are going to work.
- 13. Functioning is as functioning does. Some ideas are so amazing, that they have not been thought up. SARCASM HERE 11 of 13 Function Getting back to the post it notes on the wall Idea. Lets think about the process in general. How do we get from A to Z? 1 to 329? Well there are steps involved. These steps might need to be worked out several times before something else can be done. Even then, we might need to go back for corrections That’s why I put everything on the wall. I can break things down to the client. I can show them what might take some time vs. using a plugin like Gravity Forms to handle the task. Depending on their requests, and stuborness, sometimes the best plugins are scrapped because they do not like the LOOK of something. My theory is that: If it functions, style can be corrected. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP
- 14. What is Really Happening. What are the main components of the site. 12 of 13 WordPress 1 Theme 2 Plugins 3 U I 4 BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP
- 15. Accomplishing your clients dreams It’s harder than it seems. That’s what she said. SARCASM HERE 13 of 13 Success Now that you know that writing everything down is so important, you can start using this process in your own designs or company. Success is measured differently by each individual. On a serious note, this is a fact. All of your clients who are building their first website have the priorities out of whack. The things that are important to them, are not important to you. When you educate the client, they can see how you do work and adapt. Maybe it’s your creative genius that will help them improve the outcome of their project. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP
- 17. Tools I Use Every Freaking Day I can have my own separate account, but I can share information with clients. 1 of 5 ASANA TRACKY BASE CAMP Word Press It’s very important to break things down, or separate things from others. At the same time, it totally sucks having to remember what site I need to visit to update something as simple as a milestone or project details. So I have some awesome tools to share with everyone. These all offer some great features. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP
- 18. Asana is the Awful Awful. Well worth the money, This app keeps me focused. Asana is a Web Based Application that handles more than just task management. From simple to-do lists to complex projects, Asana is one tool for many purposes. What’s more, you can adapt your own workflow to Asana. Until now, I was truly lost. I use Asana to keep all of my employees inline, and informed. With this app, I can keep track of my whole team. Each team member can only see what I have assigned to them, or what they have added. Each member can write something up, and share it with who ever. This is great because it keeps a detailed log of all dialogs we have. Members can check their work online, or via mobile device. That really came in handy for us, since we are all living in different cities. It’s important for me to inform you that I only use Asana with my team members. This is how we communicate daily. This way, we can keep our own notes on a separate service, off our server. Talk about saving some space. Plus, its so UI friendly, why would we use anything else. I used to think that I had to do everything inside of one platform, or what was the point of paying for multiple things? I love WordPress, but even multisite networks can become complicated and stressed on band width. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 2 of5
- 19. Tracky. Enough said. A Las Vegas Startup, That is saving time, everywhere. Tracky is an online enterprise social collaboration platform that encompasses to-do lists, live chat, calendars, task management, people and project discovery, social accountability, cloud-based storage and more. I use Tracky for several things. Mostly because they are super involved with every single person and company that uses their platform. They have numerous integrations with WordPress and provide code for you to use if you are using any kind of programming language. The coolest part about Tracky for me personally is the simple fact, that anytime I need help, their staff is online and ready to help. Talk about a cool Las Vegas Start Up. Tracky allows us to keep a journal of projects we are currently working on, and share them with Social Networks. So Most of our Press Releases are done using a Track on Tracky. We also use Tracky with out Meet Up Groups and Developer groups we communicate with. I have met some awesome developers, just by adding them on Tracky. It’s totally free, a start up ran by the same people since day one, and taking over social collaboration day by day. The team members can even Skype with us if we need help using their system, or even just to bounce some idea’s off of. We do have to schedule that time with them though. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 2 of5
- 20. Tracky. Enough said. A Las Vegas Startup, That is saving time, everywhere. Tracky is an online enterprise social collaboration platform that encompasses to-do lists, live chat, calendars, task management, people and project discovery, social accountability, cloud-based storage and more. I use Tracky for several things. Mostly because they are super involved with every single person and company that uses their platform. They have numerous integrations with WordPress and provide code for you to use if you are using any kind of programming language. The coolest part about Tracky for me personally is the simple fact, that anytime I need help, their staff is online and ready to help. Talk about a cool Las Vegas Start Up. Tracky allows us to keep a journal of projects we are currently working on, and share them with Social Networks. So Most of our Press Releases are done using a Track on Tracky. We also use Tracky with out Meet Up Groups and Developer groups we communicate with. I have met some awesome developers, just by adding them on Tracky. It’s totally free, a start up ran by the same people since day one, and taking over social collaboration day by day. The team members can even Skype with us if we need help using their system, or even just to bounce some idea’s off of. We do have to schedule that time with them though. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 2 of5
- 21. Base Camp, You’re Drunk. There will always be love for the original. Everyone uses Base Camp, or has used Base Camp if they have decided to get serious about project management. This tool is a really amazing starting point, if you need something affordable (Cheap), and easy to use after reading instructions. There are so many apps, and plugins for Base Camp, it’s not even funny. Since it is one of the most popular project management tools out there, many developers build apps off of their API tools. Bonfire, is a Campfire application for Android that doesn't suck. How many people have heard of CLOUD SNAP? Yeah, a lot of people here in RENO know COLIN LORETZ, the CEO AND FOUNDER. His software is super compatible with Basecamp, Sales Force and even EVERNOTE. So While Base Camp is very basic to most developers, It’s truly impressive. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 3 of 5
- 22. WP Project Management Unlimited Simply, the Best We’ve Seen. GeekStreetWP.com is the service that I founded in October 2012. It doubles as a Support Service for new and advanced users who own a WordPress site, and as a design shop that can help you create something new for your site. We have two very ways we handle business. One side is the Support. We use a theme from WooThemes called Support Press. It allows us to create a knowledge base, while letting clients create support tickets to get the help that they need. Now when we have clients who use our services for Design only, we create a subdomain for that client on our multisite network, we use the Support Press theme, and we use WP Project Management Unlimited. When we build out a site for a client, they get their own support subdomain where they can view their own knowledgebase articles that we specifically write for them. They can create tickets as well. With the Projects Plugin, we also keep a communication going with the clients on a custom post type called Projects. Here, we can assign specific users to a project. They can see the outline of the project, as well as comment and upload files as they like. The only way this plugin gets any better, is if it had some kind of invoicing options. But that’s what other plugins are for. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 4 of 5
- 23. In Conclusion, or THE END! Remember what the point of this presentation was? Writing information down is super awesome. It helps all parties involved, keeps a proper timeline and logs all of the communications between users and developers alike. We write everything down on post it notes. Then we stick them to the wall in order of how the site will work. Then we create the outline. We begin development and install the functionality of the site. From there, our team stays in contact with each other, and our clients using some really cool apps, software and plugins. I really hoped that you enjoyed the presentation. Building your site before you install WordPress is more than likely not for everyone. But I hope that it helps at least some developers and clients understand that figuring out what your site will do on paper is far more important that wasting time installing plugins and themes, and ripping them down Screaming “I HATE YOU…..” really loudly from a roof top that you want to jump off. BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP 5 of 5
- 24. ANY QUESTIONS?Now is the F*CKING TIME, As Lucy LU says in Kill Bill Vol. 1 Come On Down, You’re the next contestant on the Price Is Right. URL: GEEKSTREETWP.COM Email: SALES@GEEKSTREETWP.COM BYSBYIWPGeek Street WP